Ayyam-i-Ha coming up ...

[arthra]

Baha'is observe a four day period this year called "Ayyam-i-Ha" Days of the Letter "Ha" which are Intercalary Days (This year from February 26th to March 1st) in the Baha'i calendar...these days are generally people to get together..exchange gifts and socialize. Non-Baha'is are invited to attend.

Ayyam-i-Ha preceeds the Nineteen Day Fast which this year runs from March 2nd to March 20th. Baha'is fast from food and drink from sunrise to sunset.

 

[arthra]

One practise that I would urge be considered during Ayyam-i-Ha is

contacting people you haven't seen for awhile

and visiting them...maybe bringing some token Ayyam-i-Ha gift.

I've found people appreciate the notion that they are part of a community and that people think about them even if they are less active or are isolated for whatever reason(s).

 

[arthra]

One way to look at Ayyam-i-Ha is that they are days "outside" the nineteen months of nineteen days each..

A mystical view of the letter "Ha" is also I think a very interesting and special understanding... "Ha" as a letter is part of the Greatest Name:

Let the days in excess of the months be placed
before the month of fasting. We have ordained that
these, amid all nights and days, shall be the manifestations
of the letter Ha, and thus they have not been
bounded by the limits of the year and its months

~ Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 25

 

[arthra]

History of Ayyam-i-Ha

From an article in Bahaikipedia:

The Báb, the founder of the Bábí religion, instituted the Badí‘ calendar in the Persian Bayán with 19 months of 19 days each and a period of intercalary days to allow for the calendar to be solar. The introduction of intercalation marked an important break from Islam, as under the Islamic calendar the practice of intercalation had been specifically prohibited in the Qur'an.[3] The Báb did not, however, specify where the intercalary days should go.[3] Bahá’u’lláh, who claimed to be the one foretold by the Báb, confirmed and adopted the Badi calendar in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, his book of laws.[3] He placed the intercalary days before the fasting month of `Alá, the nineteenth and last month,[4] and gave the intercalary days the name "Ayyám-i-Há" or "Days of H".[3][4]

http://bahaikipedia.org/Ayy%C3%A1m-i-H%C3%A1

 

[arthra]

An example of an Ayyam-i-Ha card...

 

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[arthra]