November
3, 2015
Ottawa
Bahá'ís Prepare to Celebrate the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh
Celebration will be the first in Ottawa to follow the “Badi” Calendar
 The Ottawa Bahá'í
community is preparing to celebrate the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh on the
evening of Friday November 13th. Bahá'ís recognize Bahá’u’lláh as the
latest in a long line of divine educators - including Krishna, Moses,
Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and others - who have brought spiritual
teachings for the advancement of humanity. The commemoration of the
Birth of Bahá’u’lláh provides an opportunity to gather together to
celebrate the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
For Bahá'ís in Ottawa, and around the world, this year’s celebration is
unique because for the first time, it will be celebrated according to
the “Badi” calendar. The Bab who was the forerunner of
Bahá’u’lláh,
created a new calendar in 1844, marking a clear break from Islam. Last
year, the central governing body of the Bahá'í community, the Universal
House of Justice, announced that 2015 would see the final
stage of the
gradual adoption of the Badi calendar throughout the worldwide Bahá'í
community.
 Until this year,
Bahá'í Holy Days have been fixed to the Gregorian
calendar, with the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh celebrated on November 12 and
the Birth of the Bab on October 20. These two Central Figures of the
Bahá'í faith were born in different years but on consecutive days in
the same lunar month of the old Islamic calendar. At that time, their
birthdays were celebrated as “Twin Holy Days” but in the West, their
birthdays have been celebrated one month apart, based on the solar
calendar. The Badi calendar is also a solar calendar but it retains
lunar elements to identify these two Holy Days. From 2015 onward, the
birthdays of the Bab and Bahá’u’lláh will be respectively celebrated on
the first and second days after the eighth new moon of the Bahá'í New
Year, which begins with the spring equinox.
The Badi calendar, which was initiated 172 years ago to mark the dawn
of a new era, will this year be fully implemented in Bahá'í communities
around the world. Bahá'ís look forward to the first historic
celebration of the “Twin Holy Days” as a sacred moment to gather and
strengthen the devotional and social life of the community. “The
adoption of a new calendar in each dispensation,” wrote the Universal
House of Justice, “is a symbol of the power of Divine Revelation to
reshape human perception of material, social, and spiritual reality.
Through it, sacred moments are distinguished, humanity’s place in time
and space reimagined, and the rhythm of life recast.”
On Friday November 13th, a public celebration of the Birth of
Bahá’u’lláh will take place at 7:30pm at the Hellenic Centre, 1315
Prince of Wales Drive. All are
welcome. Map
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