Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!
The Pittsburgh Baha’i community wishes you a very happy Ayyam-i-Ha! Baha’is around Pittsburgh have been celebrating by baking cookies and treats, making cards, giving teacher appreciation gifts and exchanging tokens of affection with family and friends.
We have ordained that these, amid all nights and days, shall be the manifestations of the letter Há, and thus they have not been bounded by the limits of the year and its months. It behooveth the people of Bahá, 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; and when they end—these days of giving that precede the season of restraint—let them enter upon the Fast.
Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas
The so-called “days of Ha” last four days in normal years and five in leap years. The letter H, or “ha” in Arabic, is associated with the number five and the concept of the Essence of God. So these days, which take place outside of the normal calendar and keep the Baha’i calendar consistent with the solar year, are devoted to the Essence of God.
The Baha’i period of fasting, 19 days in which Baha’is over the age of 15 fast from sunrise to sunset, follows Ayyam-i-Ha. The Baha’i year then culminates with the Naw Ruz holiday on the first day of spring.
Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas
O Pen of the Most High! Say: O people of the world! We have enjoined upon you fasting during a brief period, and at its close have designated for you Naw-Rúz as a feast. Thus hath the Daystar of Utterance shone forth above the horizon of the Book as decreed by Him Who is the Lord of the beginning and the end.
Stay tuned for more on this year’s Naw Ruz party in coming weeks!
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