At sundown, March 20, local Bahai’s will join others around the world to simultaneously end the 19-day fast period which occurs during the month of Ala (Loftiness) the last of the 19 months of the Baha’i calendar year. It also officially ushers in the month of Baha’i Splendor and the Baha’i New Year (Naw-Ruz) that begins each year with the vernal equinox, the first day of Spring.
In giant contrast to ending each year in the dead of Winter with drinking parties, and thousands crowding the streets of New York City’s Times Square to watch the annual “ball drop” how utterly refreshing it is to instead usher in a spiritually charged New Year coming directly out of a physical 19-day fast, and on the first day of Spring when all things in nature are being rejuvenated and made new.
What a wonderful and appropriate time to start a New Year, in the tranquil atmosphere of praise and appreciation, hope and determination. A time when the whole earth is being refreshed and infused with new brilliance and new life, melting the frozen grips of winter. Those who live upon the mountain tops, however, are the first to behold the Sunrise and to be affected by its warmth, while those in the lowlands do not receive its benefits until later in the day.
We have likewise entered into a spiritual equinox, a Spiritual Springtime, and a Spiritual New Day. A new Spiritual Sun has appeared on the horizon to warm the earth and melt the hearts of mankind, frozen by the winter of selfishness, greed, egotism, and intolerance. Those on the higher spiritual plateaus will likewise be the first to be warmed by its rays while those in the valleys will not benefit from its brilliance until later in the New Day of God. But the fact remains that the growth and development of each are dependent upon the Sun, whether or not it is realized, acknowledged, or appreciated. Failure or refusal to acknowledge truth does not change the truth, only our lives.
“Great indeed is this Day,” the Baha’i Writings proclaim… “The allusion made to it in all the sacred Scriptures as The Day of God attests to its greatness…” The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindred of the earth is now come! The promises of God, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled… The soul of every prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted for this wondrous Day. All the diverse kindred of the earth have, likewise, yearned to attain it… Happy is the man that hath attained thereunto, and woe betide the heedless.”
This is the Promised Age! “Soon the whole world, as in Springtime, will change its garb… The New Year hath appeared and the Spiritual Springtime is at hand!”
