For the nineteen days of the month of ʿAlāʾ, the last month before the spring New Year, Bahá'ís fast from sunrise to sunset.
Tagged: Fasting Prayer Sacred time Bahá'í
How It Is Practiced
From March 2 to March 20 (by the Bahá'í calendar, the month of Loftiness, ʿAlāʾ), believers between fifteen and seventy abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset, rising before dawn to eat and to pray. Exemptions cover illness, travel, pregnancy, nursing, menstruation, and heavy labor, as in the kindred fasts. The fast closes with Naw-Rúz, the New Year feast at the spring equinox. The obligatory prayers and the dawn readings frame the fasting day; many communities gather for the sunset breaking and evening devotionals through the month.
Purpose and Meaning
Bahá'u'lláh assigns the fast the same rank as the obligatory prayer — the twin duties of the faith — and 'Abdu'l-Bahá calls fasting 'the cause of awakening man' and 'a symbol of self-restraint,' the physical fast an outward token of the spiritual one: abstinence from desire itself. Placed at winter's end, it makes the year turn on discipline before celebration.
References
- Bahá'í Fast — Wikipedia Free / open access
Related Practices
- The Ramadan Fast — For the month of Ramadan, from dawn to sunset, the fast from food, drink, and desire — broken nightly with family and prayer, and crowned by the Night of Decree.
- The Obligatory Prayers — Each day the Bahá'í chooses one of three revealed obligatory prayers — short, medium, or long — the fixed point of Bahá'í devotion.
- Fasting (Orthodox) — Orthodox fasting keeps set seasons and weekdays free of meat, dairy, and often oil and wine, joined to prayer and almsgiving.
Related Across the Site
- Eucharistic Adoration Devotion — In Eucharistic adoration the consecrated host is displayed and the faithful pray in its presence in silence.
- Fasting (Orthodox) Devotion — Orthodox fasting keeps set seasons and weekdays free of meat, dairy, and often oil and wine, joined to prayer and almsgiving.
- The Angelus Devotion — The Angelus is a short prayer on the Incarnation, prayed at morning, noon, and evening at the sound of a bell.
- The Nineteen Day Feast Devotion — Every nineteen days, at the opening of each Bahá'í month, the community gathers for devotion, consultation, and fellowship — the basic unit of Bahá'í communal life.
- The Obligatory Prayers Devotion — Each day the Bahá'í chooses one of three revealed obligatory prayers — short, medium, or long — the fixed point of Bahá'í devotion.
- Vrata — Votive Fasts and Vows Devotion — A vrata is a vow undertaken for a set term — a fast day kept, a food renounced, a rite performed — for the good of oneself or of those one loves.
- Bahá'í Obligatory Prayers Prayer or Creed — Three prayers revealed by Bahá'u'lláh — Short, Medium, and Long — of which each Bahá'í chooses one to recite daily.
- Bahá'í Prayers Prayer or Creed — Revealed prayers of Bahá'u'lláh, the Báb, and 'Abdu'l-Bahá for occasions, needs, and gatherings of every kind.