A collection of mentions of the Baha’i New Year by both Baha’is and others. -gw

theprayercat (theprayercat) wrote,
@ 2009-03-21 09:25:00 

Current mood:

optimistic

1 Splendour 166 (Baha’i New Year)
Dearest my Lord, as I rush off to START DOING STUFF, remind me that I can do only what is in Your plan for me to accomplish, and that self-hate is not a requirement. Whether I have a productive day or a lazy one, it is OK to enjoy the day. “This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

http://theprayercat.livejournal.com/9342.html

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Maruska>NAW RUZ 166-2009 Slideshow

http://picasaweb.google.com/marshnly/NAWRUZ1662009?feat=embedwebsite&fgl=true&pli=1#slideshow

And so began Baha’i year 166.
A spent the day at the Nine Star ranch where I, together with Maggie and Emily, helped Farah prepare a wonderful feast. Maggie did all the flowers, Emily and I did a lot of chopping, stirring and preparing of plates. Farah even prepared a Haft Sin which is an Iranian tradition for Naw Ruz. It is a table with sevent hings that start with S and represent different spiritual virtues. The party was wonderful. The house was full of wonderful flower arrangement, amazing food, interesting conversation and fantastic songs and prayer. The joy was palpable and the Baha’i New Year began with a blast.

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The Network Educators For Social Transformation (NEST) Inc. facilitated a gathering in celebration of Naw-Ruz last March 21, 2009 at Tita Fannies Liempo and Chicken Haus located at Corrales Avenue, Cagayan de Oro. …

The occasion started with prayers followed by a short talk from Perla Judith V. Somonod-Duamar, NEST Inc. Vice President for Development Programs. Then the meal was served while a ten-minute video presentation entitled ‘Impossible Dream’ was played signifying the burdened role of women in the society as a housekeeper, wife, wage earner at the same time, mother.

Noemi C. Alindog-Medina, NEST Inc. President gave a talk on discrimination against women and an overview of the change of the society today from years before. Then a forum on the said topic and some Baha’i values followed.

http://haifabaluyos.blogspot.com/2009/03/nest-inc-holds-gathering-in-celebration.html

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Today is the Vernal Equinox. It is also the celebration of the Bahai New Year.

http://divers-and-sundry.blogspot.com/2009/03/vernal-equinox.html

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start of a new year

Well, the new year has come. We celebrated with a party at the weekend – hall packed with people and not a drop of booze anywhere. Fruit, rice, vegetable stew, bread, juices, tea and coffee, and cakes. Then music performed live by some talented young people. That was the New Year party for members of the Baha’i Faith and their friends in Nottingham.

Since I had to stay in Austin for the Baha’i Faith (www.bahai.org) New Year celebrations, I did not do the stage racing that was on down in Fayetteville. But it worked out ok as I was able to put in two back-to-back five hour rides on Saturday and Sunday to clock up over 180 miles. This is the most I have done in a long while, especially on consecutive days.

“MANKIND IS BUT A BABE IN THE WOMB OF THE WORLD”

http://www.solarnavigator.net/welcome_to_our_world.htm

Why are we here? Rainn’s faith (baha’i) states that we are here to be of service but also to prepare for our spiritual life. The analogy was just as a baby in a womb is growing limbs and eyes and ears in order to function in this physical world, we are growing in spiritual ways in order to function as spirit. We are learning compassion and service and reverence for life.

Musings on inspirational and spiritual quotes and sayings — Funderinger rundt oppløftende og åndelige sitater og ordtak

http://buddingyogini.blogspot.com/2009/03/good-questions.html

The metaphor of this world as a womb-world is a powerful one. -gw

Photo: “Yazd: Zoroastrian Fire Temple,” uploaded on June 14, 2007 by birdfarm on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic

TWO of Singapore’s lesser-known religious groups – the Parsi Zoroastrian Association and the Baha’i Community of Singapore – are celebrating their New Year’s Day tonight. March 21, known in the northern hemisphere as the first day of spring, also marks the first day of the calendar year for devotees of these two Iranian faiths.

Both religious groups will be commemorating the holy day, Naw Ruz, which means ‘New Day’, with an evening of dinner and dancing – and devotional prayers.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_352645.html

It would be wonderful if representatives of the third Iranian faith would be able to join the festivities there, too.  -gw

Bottom photo: “Nancy – France, Chahārshanbe-Sūri , is the ancient Iranian festival dating at least back to 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era. The tradition includes people going into the streets and alleys to make fires, and jump over them.” Uploaded on May 3, 2008 by khorashad on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

At the fireside I attended last Saturday there were so many people I didn’t know.  I thought they were from out of town. No, they were from Pierce Peninsula in our cluster. Hearing them speak  so knowledgeably about the Faith, I assumed they were Baha’is of long-standing. In fact, they were newly registered, their knowledge the fruit of the Ruhi Institute process. -gw 

This semester I’ve been meeting weekly with a Baha’i study group.  This week we talked about prayer.

It hit me tonight. I haven’t prayed in a very long time, and suddenly I’m not okay with that.  I think for a long time I’ve associated prayer with asking some faceless God for things that deep down I know may or may not happen, because I’ve felt for a long time that God does not have a hand in the events of the earth any longer.

But, in that statement… I feel like that there is a God, and he/she/The Divine Power that is God, does have something to offer, even if he has stopped involving himself directly in the affairs of humanity.

This thought came after we discussed the Prophet Muhammed’s thought that “prayer is like a ladder, suspended between heaven and earth by which we can ascend to paradise” (a summary from the Ruhi Institute book) along with the Long Obligatory Prayer.

http://windowsandthings.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/i-guess-you-would-call-this-an-epiphany/

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I put through my working with children check today.  So now if i need to be in charge of young people, it’s actually legal, lol.  We’ve almost finished Ruhi book 5 semi-intensively, so if i actually had time, I could start a junior youth group.

http://thustin.livejournal.com/10978.html

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Before leaving, vandals sprayed hateful slurs and insults on gas and water tanks found on the cemetery grounds. These slurs contain spelling mistakes suggesting that the vandals may have been young or uneducated. One of the insults contains a reference to the Ruhi program, a series of study courses offered by the Baha’i community to serve the spiritual and educational needs of the greater community.

http://www.iranpresswatch.org/2009/02/semnan-cemetery/

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By obeying the commandments, I can open the doors to what is possible in both this world and the world to come.  I can’t figure any of this out on my own. by the way. What little awareness of meaning that I have is due to studying the Writings, participation in Ruhi study circles, prayer and consistent participation in 12 step groups so that my “idle fancies and vain imaginings” have less effect on me, “one day at a time”.

http://angelfly72.blogspot.com/2009/02/thoughts-about-gods-commandments.html 

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In our IPG area there are many people who want to know more about the Faith and become Baha’is that it is like picking out the roses in a flower garden. The core team literally has to slow down teaching efforts, because of the need for more Ruhi tutors and children’s class teachers.

Comment to http://meetingthedualchallenge.blogspot.com/2009/02/beauty-of-tag-team-teaching.html

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Un número de personas que compartieron sus experiencias durante las sesiones plenarias. Sonia, of the Canary Islands, said she had participated in a study circle, using Book 1 of the Ruhi curriculum, with five women who were not Baha’is. Sonia, de las Islas Canarias, dijo que había participado en un círculo de estudio, utilizando el libro 1 de la Ruhi currículo, con cinco mujeres que no se bahaíes. “At the end of the book, all of them wanted to declare themselves Baha’is,” she said. “Al final del libro, todos ellos quería declararse bahaíes,” ella dijo.  

http://www.idiomaswatson.com/noticiasbahais/?p=111

It’s unusual to find a review of the Baha’i Faith that is as comprehensive as the blogger of Namaste’ Wholistic has put together. Thanks to  Che’ Vyfhuis for her exemplary effort. -gw

He’d come from India to visit his daughter one summer.

I met her first.

She said, “You MUST meet my dad!”

She’d told him about me the first time we met, about a week later when I visited her home to meet him, her dad, Abbas.

The reason she felt her dad and I needed to meet was that as a Bahai, she’d heard him talk the same language I did as a student of Metaphysics.

http://namastewholistic.blogspot.com/2009/03/unified-teaching-bahai-faith.html

Everyday there is an artist who is new to me to get to know.  Here a singer that was up for a Grammy a few years ago who is a long-time Baha’i with a new album, Desire. -gw

The disc open up with Tierney reciting the Baha’i Arabic Hidden Words:

“O SON OF BEING! Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants”.

She follows this up with a mellow and arresting rendition of “Its Only A Paper Moon”. The quest for materialism is exposed as hollow, set against more lasting and substantial ideals. All of the eleven tracks capture the allure of the material in their own poignant unique ways, including lesser-performed gems such as “Long Daddy Green” and “Whatever Lola Wants”.

It should also be pointed out that Sutton follows in the tradition of Baha’i jazz musicians such as pianist Mike Longo, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and French horn player, John Clarke. …

“For me and for the band, juxtaposing the secular and sacred is simply
what we do. For us playing and creating music is essentially a spiritual
enterprise but, of course, we live in a secular world and I’ve never
had any desire to ram my personal spirituality down anyone’s throat. The
decision to use some Baha’i texts on Desire was an organic band
decision that was made over time and felt right and unforced.”

See also: http://www.leithjb.net/blog/2007/07/22/the-tierney-sutton-band-played-for-my-37th-wedding-anniversary/

http://news.bahai.org/story/427

GRAMMY-NOMINATED TIERNEY SUTTON BAND SEEKS THE PATH TO THE TRUE SELF IN NEW TELARC RECORDING

It’s today. Tune in. -gw

Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show on Tuesday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. EDT will explore the background and history of the Baha’i faith, religious persecution in Iran and the arrest and forthcoming trial of the seven Baha’i leaders.

Martin Savidge will host a panel of guests:

• Dwight Bashir is a senior advisor for the Middle East at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. …
• Kit Bigelow is the director of external affairs for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S. Since 1985, she has represented the National Spiritual Assembly in the promotion and protection of human rights, including religious freedom, the rights of women, U.S. ratification of United Nations human rights treaties and the elimination of racism. …
• Trita Parsi is the founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and an expert on U.S.-Iranian relations, Iranian politics and the balance of power in the Middle East.

http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/03/11/qa-ask-your-questions-on-bahai-faith-and-iran/4371/

Social Studies

Assigned today: Due Tuesday, 3/17, read Baha’i handout and answer questions. Also, if you have not already done so,show World Religions folder to parents.
Previously Assigned/still due: None

http://hilltownprisms.blogspot.com/2009/03/homework-316.html

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March 15th, 2009 Iran: In Defence of the Bahá’í Minority
Hamid Tehrani · 20:17 · Education , Governance
lingua → fr
The Bahá’í minority in Iran has long been under pressure, and it seems the situation has become worse. Iranian authorities recently accused seven leaders of the Bahá’í faith of espionage. The Bahá’í themselves say they are being persecuted because of their religion. 3 comments · read »

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/03/15/iran-in-defence-of-the-bahai-minority/

In the early morning hours, unidentified individuals spray-painted slogans and threats on the walls of several Baha’i homes in the city of Semnan.

http://www.dipity.com/mideastyouth/Persecution_of_Baha_is