Are you doing anything special this year to celebrate Ayyam-i-Ha? What things did you do as a kid, if you grew up as a Baha’i? If you don’t know about this time of charity, gift-giving, and celebration, what would you like to know about it?
My God, my Fire and my Light! The days which Thou hast named the Ayyam-i-Ha (the Days of Ha, Intercalary days) in Thy Book have begun, O Thou Who art the King of names, and the fast which Thy most exalted Pen hath enjoined unto all who are in the kingdom of Thy creation to observe is approaching. I entreat Thee, O my Lord, by these days and by all such as have during that period clung to the cord of Thy commandments, and laid hold on the handle of Thy precepts, to grant that unto every soul may be assigned a place within the precincts of Thy court, and a seat at the revelation of the splendors of the light of Thy countenance.
These, O my Lord, are Thy servants whom no corrupt inclination hath kept back from what Thou didst send down in Thy Book. They have bowed themselves before Thy Cause, and received Thy Book with such resolve as is born of Thee, and observed what Thou hadst prescribed unto them, and chosen to follow that which had been sent down by Thee.
Thou seest, O my Lord, how they have recognized and confessed whatsoever Thou hast revealed in Thy Scriptures. Give them to drink, O my Lord, from the hands of Thy graciousness the waters of Thine eternity. Write down, then, for them the recompense ordained for him that hath immersed himself in the ocean of Thy presence, and attained unto the choice wine of Thy meeting.
I implore Thee, O Thou the King of kings and the Pitier of the downtrodden, to ordain for them the good of this world and of the world to come. Write down for them, moreover, what none of Thy creatures hath discovered, and number them with those who have circled round Thee, and who move about Thy throne in every world of Thy worlds.
Thou, truly, art the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Informed.
(Baha’u’llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha’u’llah, p. 65)
3 thoughts on “The First Day of Ayyam-i-Ha”
Comments are closed.
We really didn’t do much as kids – but now that I have kids and have to try to ‘compete’ with Christmas, we are doing more:
Decorating the house with paper chains and balloons
a small gift beside their bed every morning (balloons, hershey kisses, outlandish socks, little toys)
some gifts to open every day
plus they get other treats that we usually don’t allow – like chocolate in the morning, or getting to eat out more than once a week.
I also sent a little description to my oldest one’s school and have decided that next year, we’ll do cookies for the whole class – just didn’t think of it early enough to actually do it this year.
oh – I forgot – we also combed through the house the week before and put together two large bags (hefty size!) of things to give away – the kids chose several toys each to add to the pile by themselves so that they could understand the giving part as well as the getting part.
Pooneh, that is fantastic! I love the ideas. Thanks for sharing.