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! |
