ARTICLES

The Nineteen Day Feast

Taken from an article by Hand of the Cause Hasan Balyuzi, first published in the Baha'i Journal, February 1963

The institution of the Nineteen Day Feast is unique and peerless amongst all the gatherings and the communal efforts of mankind. Its quality and the mode of its functioning show the health and virility of a Baha'i Community. From it can flow an incalculable and illimitable measure of spiritual power. The beloved Master once said that should the Baha'is make full use of the potentialities of the Nineteen-Day Feast, they could thereby change the destinies of their town. He also said that He would be there in this gathering with the Baha'is.

And the converse is also true. A Nineteen-Day Feast held in a climate alien to the life of the Faith, divorced from the principles laid down for the conduct of such a Feast, shut out from its guiding light, becomes a venomous instrument and injures every individual Baha'i as well as the community.

Abdu'l-Baha has repeatedly said that if religion becomes the cause of discord it is better to be without it. Medicine is to cure, to heal. Should it aggravate a disorder, it becomes lethal. Similarly, a Nineteen-Day Feast reduced to the level of a mechanical ritual or made the arena of cantankerous contention cannot but harm. It is better, far better to be without it.

The more delicate and well-balanced an instrument, the more damaging will be the consequences of its failure.

Attendance at the Nineteen-Day Feast is not obligatory.

For us Baha'is, as stated by the beloved Master, the Nineteen Day Feast is what the Holy Communion is for the Christians. Does a sincere Christian go to the Holy Communion to have a jolly time or to be insufferably bored? Of course not.

The Nineteen Day Feast according to the directions of Abdu'l-Baha, is composed of three distinct parts, each one well-defined in its scope, and yet all so blended as to form one continuous and unbroken process. In the art of the ballet, music, movement and decor each stand as a separate entity and yet completely merged into one individual unit. So are the component parts of the Nineteen Day Feast. The link and the keynote is fellowship in Baha'u'llah.

Baha'is come to a Nineteen Day Feast not so much to partake in communal worship, as to express and exchange views and ideas about the multifarious problems of their community, to associate lovingly with one another, but above all of these, supremely important and vital as they are, Baha'is come to the Feast in order to experience the unity unfolded by the Divine hand of Baha'u'llah. A Nineteen Day Feast that fails to make this experience a blazing, throbbing reality, is nothing but a mechanical performance that will only serve to blazon human frailties.

The conflicting tendencies of the world must be shed outside the doors of the Nineteen Day Feast. This does not mean either the assumption of an air of indifference or hiding behind a facade of spiritual pride and affected superiority. It only means emptying our hearts and our minds to make room for the grace of Baha'u'llah. Otherwise a barrier wrought by our own hands will intervene between the communal character of the Feast and the Source which is to feed and sustain it.

The first part of the Feast is devotional. Prayer must come from the depths of one's heart. Othewise it is not prayer. It is automation. The words that we use whilst we pray, which are prayers revealed by the Founders of our Faith we must know intimately. We must be familiar with them not just by an intellectual grasp of what they signify, but because of what they evoke from our innermost beings, by the token of the deep longing response they command from our hearts. When the Persian believers chant a prayer at a meeting, it is almost always a prayer that they have used in their own solitary devotionals, with which they are well acquainted. Thus their chanting is not merely giving utterance to a sweet and charming melody. They know the meaning, the import of those words. And words take wings.

Distributing books just a short while prior to the beginning of the devotional part of the Feast and then asking some of the friends present to read prayers or Tablets which they may never have set eyes on before, is a practice which has oftentimes been followed. There are occasions, and abundant they have been, when in spite of this glaring defect, the spirit of the Feast and of those attending it makes full compensation, and the devotional is raised to supreme heights. But this practice is fundamentally wrong, and there have been sad failures. One of my excruciating Baha'i experiences was sitting through a solemn commemoration meeting and hearing the words of Abdu'l-Baha being murdered.

Another very important point to bear in mind is the very injunction of Baha'u'llah not to burden souls with lengthy recitation of scriptures. He has said: "To chant but one verse with joy and gladness is better for you than reading all the Revelations of the Omnipotent God with carelessness."

If a believer is giving a Feast, it is his or her privilege to arrange the devotional programme. How- ever, no local Spiritual Assembly is bound to observe the custom which has grown up, of having one believer or more acting as hosts at a Nineteen Day Feast. The Assembly can take full charge of the devotional and have the cost of refreshments defrayed from the local funds at its disposal. There should be no rigidity of procedure in these respects.

The second stage is usually termed "the business part" of the Feast, an appelation which can be misconstrued. It is the period of consultation. The Secretary and the Treasurer of the Assembly and various committees present reports. The purpose of these reports is certainly not a mere enumeration of problems, resolutions and decisions. Otherwise the medium of a bulletin, a newsletter, would suffice. The underlying principle is consultation and creative consultation at that. It is a human oddity to cling to the trivial and talk ad nauseum about it.

I remember a Nineteen Day Feast when a great deal was spoken about serving tea at a particular function and tempers were frayed. A principle to uphold most conscientiously is the inalienable, the sacred right of every believer to express freely his views on questions and problems that are the subject of consultation, and to offer suggestions. But the opinions of one or two people, no matter how fervently held and how forcibly expressed, cannot be taken as the considered view of the whole Feast unless definitely voted as a recommendation to the local Assembly. And the Assembly is duty bound to examine fully any recommendation that emanates from a Nineteen Day Feast. Should it fail to do so, it will have gravely compromised a fundamental principle of the Cause and has much to answer to Baha'u'llah.

But the deliberations of the Nineteen Day Feast must rise above petty thoughts and obstinate hagglings. They must bypass small matters of little value. Certainly any subject that is related to the work of the Cause and the life of the community can be brought up at the Feast, but to make ponderous issues of trivialities is a grave betrayal of the purposes of the Feast. At all times this thought must be present in our minds, that consultation is a unique feature of our Faith, and that consultation is not argumentation. Creative indeed must be the consultation of a Nineteen Day Feast.

The third and the concluding part of the Feast is of a social nature. When this stage is reached, the atmosphere of the Feast is well established. It can be dismal and intolerably weighed down, it can soar above the stars. And breaking bread together is an ancient and time-honoured custom of mankind, symbolic of fellowship and love. In a Baha'i Feast it transcends the flat level of custom and rite, and becomes a scintillating expression of unity.

The 19-day period of fasting

The nineteen-day period of fasting takes place during the last month of the Baha'i year, the month of Ala (Loftiness), 2nd - 20th March inclusive. It is followed by the Feast of Naw-Ruz. Fasting is enjoined on all believers between the ages of 15 and 70. People under the age of fifteen, travellers, the sick and infirm, and women with child are exempt from the Fast.

The beauty of the Fast

O My loving companions on the path Think ye that the fast is a burden? Even should you waste into nothingness, This would be a joy beyond compare. For those that enjoy this mystic meal, The True Fast begins at sunset.

If it be that thy stomach groans And thy tongue is a desert, Eat and drink thoughts of thy Beloved Whose sweet fresh water cleanses And heavenly food strengthens.

And as thy body empties itself, so too Empty the cup of the heart of self and passion. And in thy growing weakness Feel thy humility before God and thy fellows. And as the dreary hours pass along, Think of what store of patience Ye may gather for the coming year.

And as thy body begins to lighten, Let thy soul float like a kite In the breezes of the spirit Though still attached to the form Which is fulfilling its daily duties.

And when you desire something, Think of the One Desired, Who has created all of what thou hast ever desired. And as your hunger grows, Think of those less fortunate souls Who cannot replenish their flesh During the sleeping of the sun.

And when you break bread, Think of thy fellow Baha'is all around the world In unity with your actions.

Stephen Newbegin, first published in the California Regional Newsletter, June 1975