The Baha'i Calendar:

[arthra]

I'm starting a thread on the Baha'i Calendar as the Calendar is a "center piece" of Baha'i community life. The Baha'i calendar is a solar calendar and the next three or four Baha'i months are particularly active wityh Fasting, voting for Baha'i administrative institutions from local to national levels.

The Calendar I've shared below is from the Baha'i Calendar of Ottawa:

Feast and Holy Day Dates

Holy Days
There are eleven holy days on the Bahá'í calendar, which is divided into 19 months of 19 days each per year. On these days, Bahá'ís are urged to suspend work and school, and spend the day with family and community. The remaining four intercalary days (five in a leap year), called Ayyám-i-Há, are set aside for visits and gift-giving.

The 9 holy days when work should be suspended are:
• New Year (the vernal equinox, known as Naw-Rúz).
• First Day of Ridván
• Ninth Day of Ridván
• Twelfth Day of Ridván
• Declaration of the Báb
• Ascension (Death) of Bahá’u’lláh
• Martyrdom of the Báb
• Birth of the Báb
• Birth of Bahá’u’lláh

The Ridván festival marks the anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s first declaration of his mission in 1863.

The other 2 holy days are considered minor holidays when work is not suspended:
• Day of the Covenant
• Passing of 'Abdu’l-Bahá

Nineteen Day Feast
A three-part gathering held every 19 days, on the first day of each Bahá'í month. All Bahá'ís are encouraged to attend. The Feast always contains three elements: spiritual devotion, administrative consultation, and social fellowship.

Download Significant Bahá’í Dates 178 B.E. 2021–2022 Here!

Download Significant Bahá’í Dates 179 B.E. 2022–2023 Here!

 

[arthra]

AYYAM-I-HA is coming up.... this year Ayyam-i-Ha is observed between February 25th until March 1st actually five days this year...

"Baha'u'llah, the prophet-founder of the Baha'i Faith, about a century and a half ago, said of Ayyam-i-Ha:

"It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name."

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/celebrating-ayyam-i-ha_b_1300698

So generally during Ayyam-i-Ha Baha'is and their friends can have gatherings and "... enjoy "...good cheer for themselves..."

The Baha'i calendar is a solar calendar and every four years is a "leap year" as you know from the Gregorian calendar...

A prayer for Ayyam-i-Ha:

Intercalary Days
(The Intercalary Days, February 26 to March 1, inclusive, should be days of preparation for the Fast, days of hospitality, charity and the giving of presents.)

My God, my Fire and my Light! The days which Thou hast named the Ayyám-i-Há¹ in Thy Book have begun, O Thou Who art the King of names, and the Fast which Thy most exalted Pen hath enjoined unto all who are in the kingdom of Thy creation to observe is approaching. I entreat Thee, O my Lord, by these days and by all such as have during that period clung to the cord of Thy commandments, and laid hold on the handle of Thy precepts, to grant that unto every soul may be assigned a place within the precincts of Thy court, and a seat at the revelation of the splendors of the light of Thy countenance.

These, O my Lord, are Thy servants whom no corrupt inclination hath kept back from what Thou didst send down in Thy Book. They have bowed themselves before Thy Cause, and received Thy Book with such resolve as is born of Thee, and observed what Thou hadst prescribed unto them, and chosen to follow that which had been sent down by Thee.

Thou seest, O my Lord, how they have recognized and confessed whatsoever Thou hast revealed in Thy Scriptures. Give them to drink, O my Lord, from the hands of Thy graciousness the waters of Thine eternity. Write down, then, for them the recompense ordained for him that hath immersed himself in the ocean of Thy presence, and attained unto the choice wine of Thy meeting.

I implore Thee, O Thou the King of kings and the Pitier of the downtrodden, to ordain for them the good of this world and of the world to come. Write down for them, moreover, what none of Thy creatures hath discovered, and number them with those who have circled round Thee, and who move about Thy throne in every world of Thy worlds.

Thou, truly, art the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed.

Bahá’u’lláh

¹The Days of Há, Intercalary Days.

https://www.bahaiprayers.org/intercalary.htm

After Ayyam-i-Ha is the month of 'Ala (Loftiness) and during this month is the Fast in which we abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset! More on this later!

 

[Cino]

Wishing you a good time with people you love, then! What are your plans, are you visiting somewhere?

 

[arthra]

Thanks for your question Cino!

Tomorrow February 25th late in the afternoon Baha'is and their friends will be meeting in a nearby community at a Park. We'll exchange snacks and treats and some gifts for children.

The next day Saturday February 26th we'll have a family Ayyam-i-Ha Party at our home.... My Grandson, In-laws and Wife's Parents will be celebrating Ayyam-i-Ha at our home.

I hope to visit some members of our community I haven't seen lately and offer them a Happy Ayyam-i-Ha as well.