15. Naw-Rúz

15

Naw-Rúz

2 January 2002

To a Local Spiritual Assembly\

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

15.1 The Universal House of Justice has received your email letter of 17 November 2001 requesting guidance on the celebration of Naw-Rúz, and it was pleased to learn that your
Local Spiritual Assembly is thoughtfully considering this matter. It has asked us to send you the following reply.

15.2 The celebration of the solar New Year is a very ancient custom all over the world and, in Iran, it has been marked as the day of Naw-Rúz since Zoroastrian times. However, no matter what its antecedents are, Naw-Rúz is now a Holy Day in the Bahá’í calendar, in which it falls on the day of Bahá in the month of Bahá. In paragraph 111 of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, it is written:

Happy the one who entereth upon the first day of the month of Bahá, the day which God hath consecrated to this Great Name. And blessed be he who evidenceth
on this day the bounties that God hath bestowed upon him; he, verily, is of those who show forth thanks to God through actions betokening the Lord’s munificence which hath encompassed all the worlds. Say: This day, verily, is the crown of all the months and the source thereof, the day on which the breath of life is wafted over all created things. Great is the blessedness of him who greeteth it with radiance and joy. We testify that he is, in truth, among those who are blissful.

15.3 There are Tablets from both Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá referring to Naw-Rúz, but
we know of no authoritative text defining how it should be observed, other than the ordinance that work is to cease on that day. It is, therefore, for the friends to use their own discretion in deciding how to mark Naw-Rúz, bearing in mind the station Bahá’u’lláh decrees for it, and being careful, as in all things, not to allow any practice to become a ritual. The Iranian friends have a number of traditional ways of celebrating Naw-Rúz, and there is no reason why they should cease from these, but none of the friends should get thereby the impression that they are integral parts of the Bahá’í Naw-Rúz.

15.4 In relation to the celebration of Christian holidays by the believers, the Guardian’s secretary wrote on his behalf:

… it is surely preferable and even highly advisable that the friends should in their relation to each other discontinue observing such holidays as Christmas and New Year, and to have their festal gatherings of this nature instead during the intercalary days and Naw-Rúz.

15.5 This in itself indicates the kinds of celebrations that might be appropriate for Naw-Rúz in addition to its sacred character. An additional specific clarification you might find helpful relates to gift-giving. Although it has been a custom among Persian believers to exchange gifts at Naw-Rúz, the exchanging of gifts among believers or the giving of presents to children is not an integral part of any of our nine Bahá’í Holy Days; however, there is no prohibition against it. In this connection, we find in paragraph 16 of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the following reference to the Ayyám-i-Há (the intercalary days):

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.

15.6 In relation to traditional festivities in general, every culture has these, and Bahá’ís should be encouraged to preserve their inherited cultural identities if they wish to, so long as the activities that are involved do not contravene the principles of the Faith or identify them as the followers of other religions. The perpetuation of such cultural characteristics is an expression of unity in diversity. Although most of these celebrations have no doubt stemmed from religious rituals in bygone ages, the religious meaning has, in very many cases, given way to purely cultural tradition.

15.7 While your Assembly should take care not to compromise the interests of the Faith, its integrity and independence, by celebrating the Bahá’í Holy Days in a manner that could be construed as a mere imitation of old cultural forms, it should also be remembered that the weaning away of the Bahá’ís from customs and traditions, which have been established in their societies for centuries, takes time and is a gradual process.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

Department of the Secretariat

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