| 6:30 PM we walked a 10 minutes from our hotel to the nearby
Grand Portview Restaurant at the water front for the Baha'i Naw Ruz
dinner cum celebration that gave us a joyous Naw Ruz memory in our
Kota Kinabalu trip. Baha'is and their friends total about 200
gathered for the evening. Our family is among them. The Bahá’ís of Kota Kinabalu celebrate their
New Year ( “Naw Ruz”) this evening at Grand Portview, KK.
Naw-Ruz was started by Zoroaster Religion. It is also
celebrated by Persians living as far as northwestern China and parts
of the Indian subcontinent. In Afghanistan during the reign of the
Taliban, Naw Ruz was banned until 2001 where it came back as popular
as it was before the Taliban. It is also a holy day for Ismailis,
Alawites, and Alevis (branches of the Shiite Moslem religion). The
Jewish festival of Purim is probably adopted from the Persian New
Year.
Naw-Ruz is celebrated rather like the Christian Easter, with many
symbols indicating spring and renewal.
In the Bahá’í Faith, the Báb called the first day of his new
calendar “the Day of God”.
Bahá’u'lláh, adopted the new calendar proposed by the Báb, and the
use of Naw-Rúz as a festival for those who observed the fast.
Naw-Rúz is one of nine Bahá’í holy days where work is to be
suspended (the only one that is not is not associated with an event
in the lives of either the Báb or Bahá’u'lláh).
As with all Bahá’í holy days, there are few fixed rules for
observing Naw-Rúz. Bahá’ís all over the world celebrate it according
to local custom.
Persians start preparing for Naw Ruz with a major spring-cleaning of
their houses, the purchase of new clothes and flowers (hyacinths and
the tulips are popular). They believe that whatever a person does on
Naw Ruz will affect the rest of the year. So, if a person is warm
and kind to their relatives, friends and neighbors on that day, then
the new year will be a good one. On the other hand, if there are
fights and disagreements, the year will be a bad one.
The most joyful time for a Naw-Ruz celebration is at sunset on the
last day of the Fast. It seems almost directed by Baha’u'llah that
it should be this way:
Abdu’l-Bahá, explained the significance of Naw-Rúz in terms of
spring and the new life it brings. As the fast ended, he said, they
could turn a new page in their lives, inspired to right action and
spiritual excellence.
"...Soon the whole world, as in springtime, will change its garb.
The turning and falling of the autumn leaves is past; the bleakness
of the winter time is over. The new year hath appeared and the
spiritual springtime is at hand. The black earth is becoming a
verdant garden; the deserts and mountains are teeming with red
flowers; from the borders of the wilderness the tall grasses are
standing like advance guards before the cypress and Jessamine trees;
while the birds are singing among the rose branches like the angels
in the highest heavens, announcing the glad-tidings of the approach
of that spiritual spring, and the sweet music of their voices is
causing the real essence of all things to move and quiver."... (Abdu’l-Baha,
Baha’i World Faith, p. 351)
Here’s a part of the Naw Ruz tablet, which we can say today:
Praised be Thou, O my God, that Thou hast ordained Naw-Rúz as a
festival unto those who have observed the fast for love of Thee and
abstained from all that is abhorrent unto thee. Grant, O my Lord,
that the fire of Thy love and the heat produced by the fast enjoined
by Thee may inflame them in Thy Cause, and make them to be occupied
with Thy praise and with remembrance of Thee. (Bahá’u'lláh, Prayers
and Meditations, p. 67)
Do you have a favorite Naw Ruz memory?
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