"Happy the one who entereth upon the first day of the month of Baha, 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."
Baha'u'llah
We were the host of the first Baha'i 19 day Feast of the year in our new Baha'i Community. The first Baha'i month is 'Baha' which means 'Splendor'. The Baha'i year consists of 19 months and each month we celebrate we a feast.
It has been many years now that my family (my parents) in Mauritius has been hosting the first Baha'i 19 day feast of the year, that it has become almost like a tradition in my family. And last month when we attended our first feast in our new community the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Norwood-Paynam-St Peters asked if anyone could host the first feast of the year, we gladly jumped to the occasion and offered ourselves as the host of the 1st feas of the year.
I prepared the devotional part of the feast and hubby was in charge of the refreshments and food for the social part of the feast. The Local Spiritual Assembly is the one who is always in charge of the administrative part of the feast.
So our first feast was very nice. There were no decorations at the previous feast, so I tought i would set a main table as a focus point for the devotional part. I decorated the main table with candles and flowers petals and put a picture framed of 'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi in the center of the table. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed the Baha'i prayers and Holy Writings and the music in the devotional part of the feast. We started with a Hidden Words from Baha'u'llah set to music and chanted in both english and french (as there are a few french speaking people in the community), and then 3 Baha'i Prayers and 2 Baha'i Holy Writings. And as a closing prayer after the administrative part, i chose a Baha'i Writing from 'Abdu'l-Baha on Naw-Ruz and ended with a new version of an all time favourite Baha'i Song "Look at me, Follow Me, Be as I Am". The chairperson of the LSA thank me for the program well-prepared and said that the feast hastnt been so well prepared for many years. A few other people told me the same thing and thanked me for the beautiful devotional program. I was so happy that my efforts have helped to touch the hearts and souls of our new Baha'i family.
And everyone loved, i mean really loved the food hubby prepared.
Hubby spent two hours cooking 'samousas' and spring springrolls and they were a really big hit at the feast. We also had some fresh seasonal fruits, and other snacks and sweets, with juices, soft drinks and tea and coffee.
Mostly everyone was suprised to learn that it was hubby and not me who prepared the food. They all thought i spent hours cooking, but i told them the truth, they were so suprised and couldnt that it was hubby who did all that, they of course all congratulated him for his good cooking and talents they didnt know he had.... lol... I must admit, hubby is a very very good cook and I am so lucky to have him at home just for me and Mona to enjoy!!
Of course Mona was the center of the attention, everyone kissing and hugging her and telling us how cute and beautiful she is.... Mona was quite a bit excited at the feast herself, running around and not being so much quiet during the devotional part that hubby had to take her outside for a few minutes.
We have notice how much she is having some troubles staying quiet during the devotional parts at Baha'i gatherings, so we have decided to work on that and start particinng sitting quietly at home and have more family devotions together, so that she can learn how to listen to other saying prayers.
We are also thinking to offer our house and ourselves as host for bi-weekly devotional meetings and I was thinking to start tutoring Ruhi study circles again here in our new community.
I didnt have much time to take some pictures because we were so busy hosting the feast, but i remembered to take some pictures at the end, just before packing everything up. Unfortunately, we had turned off the candles and the main table was disturd with papers and other things on it, but you can get the idea of what it looked it with candle lights etc on it...
So here are some of the pictures of our first feast of the year.
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