The Bahá'i Faith is a relatively new religion, founded by Bahá'u'lláh (the Glory of God) 173 years ago. Before Bahá'u'lláh revealed that He was the Divine Messenger from God (foretold by the Messengers of the past, for this time and age) there was another Manifestation - The Báb. The Báb prepared the people for the coming of "Him Whom God shall make Manifest", just as John the Baptist heralded the good news of the coming of Christ.
[Concerning the uniqueness of Bahá'u'lláh's station and the greatness of His Revelation, Shoghi Effendi affirms that the prophetic statements concerning the "Day of God", found in the Sacred Scriptures of past Dispensations, are fulfilled by the advent of Bahá'u'lláh:
“To Israel He was neither more nor less than the incarnation of the "Everlasting Father",
the "Lord of Hosts" come down "with ten thousands of saints";
to Christendom Christ returned "in the glory of the Father";
to Shi'ah Islam the return of the Imam Husayn;
to Sunni Islam the descent of the "Spirit of God" (Jesus Christ);
to the Zoroastrians the promised Shah-Bahram;
to the Hindus the reincarnation of Krishna;
to the Buddhists the fifth Buddha.”] -The Universal House of Justice
Bahá'u'lláh teaches us that there is only One God (whether you call Him Allah, Dios, Dieu) we are all referring to one God. The same God sent us Krishna, Moses,Jesus Christ, Buddha, Muhammad, the Bab and Bahá'u'lláh to teach us about Him, and guide us, therefore Religion is One (they are the rays of one Sun; their spiritual teachings are all one in truth). The third main tenet of the Baha'i Faith is that Mankind is One - we all belong to one human race, regardless of our color, religion, class, gender, and we can all be united if we practice principles such as the equality between men and women, eliminating prejudices, refraining from backbiting, the importance of education, striking a balance between science and religion and of course you can't love mankind without serving mankind!
So there are millions of Baha'is all over the world (yes, in every country!) and during the last two days we celebrated the Twin Holy Days! Up until last year, we celebrated the Báb's birth anniversary on October 20th and Bahá'u'lláh's on November 12th. Why the change in dates since last year? Here's what's written in a letter from the Universal House of Justice on 10 July 2014 [The Festivals of the Twin Birthdays...have, in the East, been traditionally observed according to their correspondence to the first and second days of Muharram in the Islamic calendar. "There two days are accounted as one in the sight of God", Bahá'u'lláh affirms. Yet, a letter written on behalf of the Guardian states, "In the future, no doubt all of the Holy Days will follow the Solar calendar...How to satisfy the intrinsic lunar character of these blessed Days within the context of a solar calendar has hitherto been unanswered. We have decided that they will not be observed on the first adn the second day following the occurrence of the eight new moon after Naw-Ruz, as determined in advance by astronomical tables using Tihran as the point of reference. This will result int he observance of the Twin Birthday moving, year to year...from mod-October to mid-November according to the Gregorian calendar.]
So this year, November 1 and 2 was the 197th birth anniversary of the Báb and 199th of Bahá'u'lláh respectively (yes, next year will be the bicentenary celebration of Bahá'u'lláh!!) The Manila Bahá'is, together with a few of us from Makati started planning two weeks ahead (designing banners and invitation cards, shopping for decorations and drawing up a menu). Our first programme was an evening celebration on October 31st, with Bahá'is and friends from Manila, Makati and other neighboring clusters. (why 31st? well, according to the Bahá'i calendar, a day is from sunset to sunset, so November 1st meant sunset of October 31st til the sunset of November 1st). Early that day, several youths gathered at the Bahá'i Center to decorate the halls up and downstairs:
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| team work! |
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| paper art on the walls, creative balloons on the stairs & ceiling |
At around 7pm we were all set to begin! One of the friends had selected and printed readings, then I was the Taglish emcee (lol). It was pretty much an intimate gathering (nearly 40 of us from Manila, Makati and also some visitors from afar - Caloocan, Valenzuela and Pampanga. The very first reading was the Tablet for the Birth of the Báb, followed by prayers for teaching and firmness in the Covenant, some selected passages from The Hidden Words, and even a Chinese prayer! Then everyone stood up to face the Qiblih, for the recitation of the Tablet of Visitation.
After these lovely devotions, we went downstairs for CHIBOG TIME!
After eating, we went back upstairs to continue the programme. One of the friends prepared and presented a very comprehensive Power Point show (about the history of the Faith, the life of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, some teachings of the Faith, what Bahá'is around the world do, etc) and then the floor was open for the friends to reflect on what it means for us to be living in such a momentous time in history/ what it means that these two Luminaries rose successively above the horizon of the world. This was followed by some artistic performances!
The program ended with closing prayers, in addition to the reading of the two Tablets for the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh. Here's an excerpt from one of the Tablets:
"This is the month wherein was born He Who beareth the Most Great Name, Whose appearance hath cause the limbs of humankind to quake and the dust of Whose footsteps the Concourse on high and the dwellers of the cities of names have sought for a blessing. Whereupon they rendered praise unto God and cried out in joy and exultation. By God! This is the month through which all other months have been illumined, the month wherein He Who is the hidden Secret and the well-guarded Treasure hath been made manifest and hath called aloud amidst all humankind."
Despite the programme ending at 11pm, most of us woke up really early the following morning, for the next activity - Childrens' Class with kids from Barangay 576 (along Mindanao Extension, Sampaloc). More than 50 children gathered at the Barangay's covered court where we taught them a prayer "O God guide me..." and then the song "We are drops" both in Tagalog. We were taking turns facilitating the activities. Then we told them that the song they had learnt was inspired by the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, and the prayer they learnt was revealed by his eldest son, Abdu'l-Bahá...and that today we're celebrating the birth of Bahá'u'lláh's (the Manifestation of God), which is why were were giving them coloring sheets prepared by Bahá'i Coloring Pages (click the link, for more beautiful illustrations!) The kids had so much fun coloring, and of course they had to practice the virtues of kindness and sharing with the crayons. All the kids, their moms and everyone else in the covered court had a warm bowl of lugaw (rice porridge) and juice (both prepared by some Manila youths, as early at 7am that day) to end the fun-filled programme. Do watch the slideshow video I prepared (with my favvvoooorrriiitee Baha'i-inspired song Siyahamba!)
video:
You might think we all went back home to sleep, but no! Well, I don't think anyone slept - but we all did take a nap, to power up for another celebration later that evening (November 1st). The program was pretty much the same as the previous night, but our guests were our dear neighbors (people who lived around the Bahá'i center) and Barangay officials. After a few opening prayers and a round of introduction, Roel presented his Powerpoint slides and then I showed everyone the video (above) as well as another slideshow of photos of Bahá'is around the Philippines, to let our neighbors know that they are all welcome to join our Devotional Gatherings every Sunday morning at the Center, and that we'd all be really happy to hold Childrens and Junior Youth Classes with the kids in our barangay!
video:
After a closing prayer and of course, a GROUP PHOTO! we headed downstairs for
food, glorious food!
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