The Bahá'í Fast
The Baha'is around the world started fasting on the 2 March and this will last for 19 days (1 Baha'i Calendar Month) ending on the 20 March where we will then usher in the Baha'i New Year - Naw Ruz on the 21 March. 21 March also marks the beginning of spring in the Northern hemisphere.
Here's something to read about The Baha'i Fast:
The Bahá'í fast is established in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and occupies much the same preeminent position that it does in Islam. Several passages in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh lay stress on its importance, listing it with the obligatory prayer as among the greatest of the ritual obligations.
According to Bahá'u'lláh Himself, the Bahá'í fast is adapted from the fast ordained in the Bayan. The Báb's fast, mentioned in both the Arabic and Persian Bayans, occupied the last month of the Bábí calendar, the month of `Ala', roughly 2-20 March. Believers were to fast from the age of eleven (numerically equivalent to huva, `He') until forty-two (bala, `Yea'). Children could fast until noon for the first eleven days. Those over forty-two were exempted from fasting. Those fasting had to abstain from food, drink and sexual relations from sunrise to sunset -- preferably from slightly before sunrise until slightly after sunset. No exemptions are mentioned. The real meaning of the fast, the Báb said, was abstention from the love of other than the Manifestation of God. The continuation of the fast was contingent on the acceptance of Him Whom God shall make manifest.
Although Bahá'u'lláh accepted the fast of the Báb, He altered the details of its regulations in many important respects. The Bahá'í fast is binding on all believers from the age of maturity, which for Bahá'ís is fifteen, until seventy. There is no provision made for children fasting. The following individuals are exempted from fasting: Travellers, providing their journey is to last at least nine hours or two hours on foot. If they break their journey for more than nineteen days, they are only exempt for the first three days after their arrival. If they return home, they must begin fasting on arrival. The sick. Women who are pregnant or nursing. Women who menstruating, who must instead repeat the phrase `Glorified be God, the Lord of Splendour and Beauty' ninety-five times between one noon and the next. Those engaged in heavy labour, who are advised to be discrete and restrained in availing themselves of this exemption.
These groups are also exempted from fasting in Islam. Bahá'u'lláh does not require missed days of fasting to be made up later, nor does He mention abstention from sexual relations. An individual who is exempt from fasting at any part of a day is exempt from fasting the entire day. Smoking, `Abdu'l-Baha explained, is called `drinking smoke' in Arabic, and so smoking is banned while one is fasting.
The fast is binding on Bahá'ís in all countries but it is an individual obligation, not enforceable by Bahá'í administrative institutions. The secondary regulations of fasting, such as the prohibition on smoking, are at present only binding on Bahá'ís of Middle Eastern background.
Bahá'ís are allowed to fast at other times of the year but as this is not encouraged, it is rarely done. Bahá'u'lláh permitted the making of vows to fast but preferred that such vows be `directed to such objectives as will profit mankind'.
While in Edirne Bahá'u'lláh revealed a number of prayers for fasting (munajat or alvah-i-siyam), although one of them contains a reference to `Akka. These prayers, some rather lengthy, are the most important statements on the spiritual meaning of the fast in the Bahá'í scripture: for example, '. . . Thou hast bidden all men to observe the fast, that through it they may purify their souls and rid themselves of all attachment to any one but Thee . . ' Fasting itself is only acceptable if it is done purely out of love for God.
