A prayer for Naw-Ruz

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Yesterday (Monday, 21 March) saw Bahá’ís throughout the Thames Valley mark Naw-Ruz, the Bahá’í New Year’s Day. The festival is held on the spring equinox (March 21) and symbolises the new life of spring.

It also marks the end of the Bahá’í Faith’s annual 19-day fast for adults. The 19-day fast – between sunrise and sunset – was essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation. The Naw-Ruz is one of the nine holy days of the year when work is suspended.

Observing Naw-Ruz takes different multi-cultural forms in the 120,000 localities where Bahá’ís reside around the world.  Although some Bahá’ís marked the occasion with family and friends on Naw-Ruz itself, many Thames Valley Bahá’ís will also be getting together on Saturday 26th March for a celebration which will include readings of prayers from the Bahá’í scriptures, as well as music, dance and food.

Study indicating that religion is set for extinction is ‘part of the natural cycle’

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Thames Valley’s Bahá’í Community has said that the results of a study using census data from nine countries which shows that religion is set for extinction there is just part of the natural cycle of the world.

Shawn Khorassani
Bahá’u’lláh predicted that religion would decline - but this would present an opportunity.

The study, reported on the BBC News website today (Tuesday 22 March), found a steady rise in those claiming no religious affiliation. It looked at census data stretching back a century from countries in which the census asked about religious affiliation. The American Physical Society meeting in Dallas, US, heard that religion is expected to all but die out altogether in those countries.

Shawn Khorassani, a West Berkshire Bahá’í, said: “This is just part of the natural order of things – Bahá’u’lláh said that the world would eventually get fed up with religion. People would recognise that religion can be the cause of some of the world’s problems and that they would reject it.

“But Bahá’u’lláh said that eventually people would realise that everything becomes worse without it and that they can not live without a moral compass. That is when the Bahá’í Faith will shine.”