Bahá'ís celebrate Intercalary Days |26 February 2015

Starting today, Bahá'ís around the world will be celebrating four days of festivities, gift-giving, parties, service projects and charitable humanitarian work during the Bahá'í Intercalary Days. The Intercalary Days describe the four or five days in the annual Bahá'í calendar that don’t fall into any given month.

Bahá'ís set aside those days for joyous celebrations and preparation for the Bahá'í fast
that always follows Intercalary Days.

The Bahá’ís of the world, just like many other major global Faiths, have a unique calendar. Most of the world’s calendars base their months, either roughly or exactly, on the phases of the moon or the earth rotation around the sun.

The Bahá’í calendar uses a new approach and has a unique system of nineteen months, each made up of nineteen days. That means 361 days every year have very specific, arithmetically predictable dates. The Intercalary Days, a period of four days (five in leap years) are added between the 18th and 19th months, which allows for the year to be adjusted to the solar cycle. These Intercalary Days (from February 26 to March 1) are set aside for rejoicing, hospitality, gift-giving, special acts of charity, and spiritually preparing for the Bahá’í fast, from March 2-20.

The Bahá’í calendar has more new features, as well – each day begins and ends at sunset; New Year’s day happens on March 21, the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere; the Bahá’í calendar’s months all are named for aspirational spiritual qualities and attributes of God.

Nineteen Day fast
The Nineteen-Day fast is a nineteen-day period of the year during which members of the Bahá’í Faith adhere to a sunrise-to-sunset fast. Observing the fast is an individual obligation, and is binding on all Bahá’ís who have reached the age 15 until the age of 70.

Bahá’u’lláh designated a nineteen-day period each year during which adult Bahá’ís fast from sunrise to sunset each day. This period coincides with the Bahá’í month of Alá -- meaning Loftiness -- from March 2 to 20, which immediately precedes the Bahá’í new year. It is a time of prayer, meditation and spiritual rejuvenation.

Fasting has been a significant practice of religion throughout human history. Many of the Manifestations of God Themselves went through a period of meditation and fasting at some point in Their lives during which, in intense communion with God, They contemplated the mysteries of the universe and the nature of Their mission.

Spiritual nature of fast
Along with obligatory prayer, the fast is one of the greatest obligations of a Bahá’í, and its chief purpose is spiritual; to reinvigorate the soul and bring the person closer to God. Prayer and Fasting are two acts of devotion that have played an important part in religious life over the course of human history.
The Bahá’í writings explain that “the fast is essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character. Fasting is symbolic, and a reminder of abstinence from selfish and carnal desires”.

Fasting, said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá “is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man’s thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow”.

However, it is important to note that fasting should not be viewed as a practice of asceticism, nor is it to be used as a means of penance: “This material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.”

A number of special prayers have been revealed specifically for the period of the fast. One, for example, begins with these words:

 “This is, O my God, the first of the days on which Thou hast bidden Thy loved ones to observe the Fast. I ask of Thee by Thy Self and by him who hath fasted out of love for Thee and for Thy good-pleasure -- and not out of self and desire, nor out of fear of Thy wrath -- and by Thy most excellent names and august attributes, to purify Thy servants from the love of aught except Thee…..”

 “…O God! As I am fasting from the appetites of the body and not occupied with eating and drinking, even so purify and make holy my heart and life from aught save Thy Love…”.

Contributed by the Bahá’í Faith - Seychelles