“Commemoration of the Twin Holy Birthdays of the Twin Manifestations of God" ( The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh)
On October 26, 27, 2022 i e. from Sunset on October 25th to Sunset on the 27th 2022 (11, 12 'Ilm, 179 B. E.) – Bahá'ís/Bahá'í Communities around the world together with their friends and families are commemorating joyously the 203rd Birth Anniversary of of the Báb, the Prophet-Herald of the Bahá'í Faith and the 205th Birth Anniversary of the Blessed Beauty Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith who brought the Baha’i teachings to the humanity - to mark the Twin Holy Birthdays. On these two days, Baha'is are urged to suspend work and school, and spend the day with family and community.
Baha’is regard the Bab and Baha’u’llah as twin manifestations of God, both Prophets and Founders of independent religions, whose Faiths ultimately came together as one.
Further cementing the bond between these two Manifestations is the celebration of their Twin Birthdays. “The Festival of the Twin Birthdays” or “Twin Holy Days” celebrates the birth of the Bab on the first day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar (20 October 1819) and the birth of Baha’u’llah on the second day of Muharram (two years prior, on 12 November 1817). Regarding the Twin Birthdays, Baha’u’llah has stated:
These two days are accounted as one in the sight of God.
(Baha’u’llah, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Baha’i World Centre, 1992, p22)
These Twin Holy Days signal a joyful, celebratory season in the Baha’i year, when the Baha’i community comes together to commemorate the advent of the two prophets of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, the twin founders of their Faith, and to hail the beginning of a New Era in human unity.
Every Faith celebrates the birth of its Founder with great joy—but the Baha’is around the world double that joy when they observe the Twin Holy Days.
The Festival of the Twin Birthdays or the Twin Holy Birthdays refers to two successive holy days in the Bahá'í calendar that celebrate the births of two central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. The two holy days are the birth of the Báb on the first day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar (20 October 1819) and the birth of Bahá'u'lláh on the second day of Muharram (two years prior, on 12 November 1817).
In that lunar Muslim calendar, however, the Twin Holy Days occur on different days every year, because each new month begins with the appearance of a new moon, rather than on a fixed solar calendar date.
In relationship to that 365-day solar calendar, the Muslim calendar “loses” about eleven days every year—since twelve lunar cycles amount to approximately 354 days, which falls short of a full solar cycle.
The adoption of a new calendar in each dispensation is a symbol of the power of Divine Revelation to reshape human perception of material, social, and spiritual reality. Through it, sacred moments are distinguished, humanity’s place in time and space reimagined, and the rhythm of life recast.
They are observed on the first and the second day following the occurrence of the eighth new moon after Naw-Rúz, as determined in advance by astronomical tables using Tehran as the point of reference. This results in the observance of the Twin Birthdays moving, year to year, within the months of Mashíyyat, ‘Ilm, and Qudrat of the Bahá'í calendar, or from mid-October to mid-November in to the Gregorian calendar.
Prior to 2015 and a decision by the Universal House of Justice, these two holy days had been observed on the first and second days of Muharram in the Islamic lunar calendar in the Middle East, while other countries observed them according to the Gregorian calendar on October 20 (for the birth of the Báb) and November 12 (for the birth of Bahá'u'lláh).
The notion of "twin Manifestations of God" is a concept fundamental to Bahá'í belief, describing the relationship between the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. Both are considered Manifestations of God in their own right, having each founded separate religions (Bábism and the Bahá'í Faith) and revealed their own Holy Scriptures. To Bahá'ís, however, the missions of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are inextricably linked: The Báb's mission was to prepare the way for the coming of Him whom God shall make manifest, who eventually appeared in the person of Bahá'u'lláh.
For this reason, both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are revered as Central Figures of the Bahá'í Faith. A parallel is made between Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb as between Jesus and John the Baptist.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá'u'lláh wrote that his birthday and that of Báb "are accounted as one in the sight of God"
Born and raised in the capital city of Persia, Tehran, Baha’u’llah grew up as the son of a government minister and nobleman. But rather than pursuing his father’s career, early in his adulthood Baha’u’llah turned his attention to a life of service to the poor and needy. He sought no position or prominence, and as a young man accepted the religion of the Bab—which subjected Baha’u’llah and his family to terrible privation, persecution and imprisonment.
Thirteen years after the government’s execution of the Bab in 1850, Baha’u’llah announced that he was the one foretold by the Bab—God’s Messenger for humanity’s dawning golden age of unity and peace, promised in all the world’s scriptures:
For centuries, the peoples of the world have awaited the Promised Day of God, a Day when peace and harmony would be established on earth. The dawn of this new Day witnessed the appearance of not one but two Manifestations of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, Whose Revelations released the spiritual forces destined to transform society.
The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were unique in religious history. Never before had a Manifestation of God served as the Herald of another Manifestation, as the Báb did for Bahá'u'lláh. As a result, They are known as the Twin Manifestations of God.
The concept of ‘Twin’ is a recurrent thread in scriptural and textual designations throughout authoritative Baha’i works, and the word is used in creative ways.
For instance, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh are variously referred to as the “Twin Founders,” “Twin Holy Trees,” “Twin Surging Seas,” “Twin Luminaries,” and the “Twin Manifestations.”
The Báb prepared the way for and commanded His own followers to seek out Bahá’u’lláh, and when they did find Him, they became Bahá’ís.
Bahá'u'lláh was born on 12 November 1817 in Tehran, Iran, and this Holy day was instituted in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, His Book of Laws, where Baháʼu'lláh first refers to four great festivals: the Festival of Ridván, the Declaration of the Báb, the birth of the Báb—who is considered to be a Manifestation of God, and who foretold the coming of Baháʼu'lláh—and the birth of Baháʼu'lláh. In questions submitted to Baháʼu'lláh after writing the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Baháʼu'lláh states that the two days commemorating the births of the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh are seen to be one in the "sight of God" and are referred to as the "Twin Birthdays".
In the Islamic calendar, which is a lunar calendar, the two Holy days fall on consecutive days: the birth of the Báb is on the first day of Muharram in 1235 AH (20 October 1819), and the birth of Baháʼu'lláh is on the second day of Muharram in 1233 AH (12 November 1817).
Since the Baháʼí calendar is a solar calendar, the decision to celebrate the Twin Holy Birthdays in a solar or lunar basis remains to the Universal House of Justice.
Until March 20, 2015, in most of the world, the Holy day was celebrated according to the solar year on 12 November, and the birth of the Báb was celebrated on 20 October. Since days in the Baháʼí calendar start at sunset, the holy day started on the evening of 11 November and proceeded until sunset on 12 November.
However, in 2014, the Universal House of Justice decided to celebrate the twin holy days on the first and second day following the eighth new moon after Naw-Rúz, starting from March 20, 2015 onwards. Thus from March 20, 2015 onward the day where the Birth of Baháʼu'lláh is celebrated will change from year to year.
ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, the son of Baháʼu'lláh, stated that during the holy day the community should rejoice together to increase the unity of the community. Baháʼís usually observe the holy day with community gatherings where prayers are shared and the birth of Baháʼu'lláh is celebrated.
Baha'u'llah's teachings created the foundation for the Baháʼí faith, whose pillars are unity of God, unity of religion, unity of humanity.
A spokesperson said, “The Báb is recognized as the Prophet-Herald of the Bahá’i Faith, who revolutionized religious thinking of the time, 19th century Persia (modern day Iran). His Ministry ushered in a New Era in humanity’s spiritual development. His teachings established an independent religion and prepared the world for the coming of a new Manifestation of God, Baháʼu’lláh.
The Bahá’í calendar, or Badi (“wondrous” or “unique”) calendar, began on Thursday March 21, 1844 CE, the year the Bahá’í began. This solar calendar has 19 months of 19 days. Each year, four or five intercalary days, called Ayyam-i-Ha, are added. The new year begins on the vernal equinox, March 20 or 21 on the Gregorian calendar. Years include the notation BE (Bahá’í Era) and days begin and end at sunset.
Bahá’ís observe 11 festivals each year. Nine of these are holy days when work and school are suspended.
The year 2015 would be the first year that Baha'is around the world commemorated the 'Twin Birthdays' of the Twin Manifestations (The Bab and Bahá’u’lláh) on consecutive dates (as they occurred in the Islamic Lunar calendar in 1817 and 1819 respectively).
In the middle of the 19th century, God summoned Bahá’u’lláh—meaning the “Glory of God”—to deliver a new Revelation to humanity. For four decades thousands of verses, letters and books flowed from His pen.
In His Writings, He outlined a framework for the development of a global civilization which takes into account both the spiritual and material dimensions of human life.
The Baha’is view Bahá’u’lláh as the promised Lord of Hosts of the Jews; the reincarnation of Krishna and the Tenth Avatar to the Hindus; the fifth Buddha, named Maitreye, the Buddha of universal fellowship to the Buddhists; the return of Christ “in the glory of the Father” to the Christians; the return of the Imam Husayn to the Shi’a Muslims; the descent of the “Spirit of God” to the Sunnis.
Bahá’u’lláh lived a tumultuous and inspirational life. His Faith now followed by millions in every corner of the globe, Baha’u’llah suffered tremendously for bringing the world a new, progressive, peaceful belief system.
As a young man Baha’u’llah became known throughout his country as the Father of the Poor, for his extensive philanthropic work to alleviate hunger and suffering. Raised in his father’s Islamic faith, Baha’u’llah broke away from those traditions by becoming a Babi, the revolutionary new belief that promised the advent of a messenger from God who would unite the world’s peoples, nations and religions.
Imprisoned and impoverished himself for those beliefs, Baha’u’llah, His family and His followers suffered through a series of subsequent banishments, repeatedly exiled by the Ottoman government from Tehran to Baghdad to Constantinople to Adrianople and finally to Akka, a prison colony in Palestine. Baha’u’llah spent the last forty years of his life, from 1852 to 1892, in prison or under house arrest.
While enduring torture and privation, Baha’u’llah gradually revealed the mystical teachings and spiritual principles that formed the Baha’i Faith—the oneness of humanity, the essential unity of all religions and the love of one God for the entire creation.
Baha’u’llah also taught the equality of men and women, the agreement of science and religion, and the core Baha’i concept called progressive revelation, which links all of the great Faiths throughout humanity’s history in a chain of continuous guidance from God.
Baha’is regard the Bab and Baha’u’llah as twin manifestations of God, both Prophets and Founders of independent religions, whose Faiths ultimately came together as one.
Further cementing the bond between these two Manifestations is the celebration of their Twin Birthdays. “The Festival of the Twin Birthdays” or “Twin Holy Days” celebrates the birth of the Bab on the first day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar (20 October 1819) and the birth of Baha’u’llah on the second day of Muharram (two years prior, on 12 November 1817). Regarding the Twin Birthdays, Baha’u’llah has stated:
Born and raised in the capital city of Persia, Tehran, Baha’u’llah grew up as the son of a government minister and nobleman. But rather than pursuing his father’s career, early in his adulthood Baha’u’llah turned his attention to a life of service to the poor and needy. He sought no position or prominence, and as a young man accepted the religion of the Bab—which subjected Baha’u’llah and his family to terrible privation, persecution and imprisonment. Thirteen years after the government’s execution of the Bab in 1850, Baha’u’llah announced that he was the one foretold by the Bab—God’s messenger for humanity’s dawning golden age of unity and peace, promised in all the world’s scriptures:
Baha’u’llah’s advent announced that the coming of age of the human species, the time when the human race might recognize itself as one, discover its fullness and its common humanity, has arrived. The Baha’i Twin Holy Days, then, signify the first universal celebration given to everyone by a loving Creator: “These two days are accounted as one in the sight of God.” –Baha’u’llah, The Most Holy Book, p. 105.
The Bab’s revelation lasted only six years, from 1844 to his martyrdom in 1850. Both before and after his death, the Babis suffered intense persecution from the Persian government and Shia Islamic clerical establishment, with more that 20,000 Babis killed for their beliefs. Known as the “Dawn-Breakers,” the Bab and his early followers sacrificed everything in their quest to promulgate his new teachings:
From the beginning the Bab must have divined the reception which would be accorded by His countrymen to His teachings, and the fate which awaited Him at the hands of the mullas. But He did not allow personal misgivings to affect the frank enunciation of His claims nor the open presentation of His Cause. The innovations which He proclaimed, though purely religious, were drastic; the announcement of His own identity startling and tremendous. He made Himself known as the Qa’im, the High Prophet or Messiah so long promised, so eagerly expected by the Muhammadan world. He added to this the declaration that he was also the Gate (that is, the Bab) through whom a greater Manifestation than Himself was to enter the human realm. – Introduction to The Dawn-Breakers, p. xxix.
The Bab was the Gate who announced a new day, his mission to close the old era and open a new one. The Bab prepared society for a greater figure, arising courageously against enormous odds to announce his revelation to the religious and state leaders of his time. His life appeared to end in tragic loss and sorrow, but he valiantly did everything in his power to prepare the way for the coming of Baha’u’llah—and succeeded. While most of the Bab’s leading disciples died at the hands of the oppressors, a core group of followers did recognize the fulfillment of the words of the Bab in the person and message of Baha’u’llah. In this way, the Bab exerted a tremendous, incalculable influence on the history of religion and the establishment of the first truly global movement for peace and unity.
These Twin Holy Days signal a joyful, celebratory season in the Baha’i year, when the Baha’i community comes together to commemorate the advent of the two prophets of God, the Bab and Baha’u’llah, the twin founders of their Faith, and to hail the beginning of a new era in human unity.
Every Faith celebrates the birth of its founder with great joy—but the Baha’is around the world double that joy when they observe the Twin Holy Days.
The Festival of the Twin Birthdays or the Twin Holy Birthdays refers to two successive holy days in the Bahá'í calendar that celebrate the births of two central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. The two holy days are the birth of the Báb on the first day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar (20 October 1819) and the birth of Bahá'u'lláh on the second day of Muharram (two years prior, on 12 November 1817).
Let us learn why the Twin Holy Days Change Dates Each Year. Middle Eastern Baha’is have traditionally observed the Twin Holy Days in accordance with the Muslim lunar calendar, and celebrated them together on consecutive days, counting them as one two-day festival. Baha’u’llah himself observed them this way.
In that lunar Muslim calendar, however, the Twin Holy Days occur on different days every year, because each new month begins with the appearance of a new moon, rather than on a fixed solar calendar date.
In relationship to that 365-day solar calendar, the Muslim calendar “loses” about eleven days every year—since twelve lunar cycles amount to approximately 354 days, which falls short of a full solar cycle.
The adoption of a new calendar in each dispensation is a symbol of the power of Divine Revelation to reshape human perception of material, social, and spiritual reality. Through it, sacred moments are distinguished, humanity’s place in time and space reimagined, and the rhythm of life recast.
They are observed on the first and the second day following the occurrence of the eighth new moon after Naw-Rúz, as determined in advance by astronomical tables using Tehran as the point of reference. This results in the observance of the Twin Birthdays moving, year to year, within the months of Mashíyyat, ‘Ilm, and Qudrat of the Bahá'í calendar, or from mid-October to mid-November in to the Gregorian calendar.
The notion of "twin Manifestations of God" is a concept fundamental to Bahá'í belief, describing the relationship between the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh. Both are considered Manifestations of God in their own right, having each founded separate religions (Bábism and the Bahá'í Faith) and revealed their own holy scriptures. To Bahá'ís, however, the missions of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are inextricably linked: The Báb's mission was to prepare the way for the coming of Him whom God shall make manifest, who eventually appeared in the person of Bahá'u'lláh. For this reason, both the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are revered as central figures of the Bahá'í Faith. A parallel is made between Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb as between Jesus and John the Baptist.
The reason behind this rapid succession, and the unprecedented bounties released by the Revelation of Twin Manifestations, remains a mystery.
“That so brief an interval,” He (Baha’u’llah), moreover has asserted, “should have separated this most mighty and wondrous Revelation from Mine own previous Manifestation is a secret that no man can unravel, and a mystery such as no mind can fathom. Its duration had been foreordained.”
Baha'is believe that the birth of Baha’u’llah marks a new age—the return of the prophets of old, the renewal of religion and the revelation of a divine cycle destined to spread peace and unity around the globe. Baha’is see the appearance of Bahá’u’lláh as the return of the spiritual springtime, revivifying the souls and establishing a new Faith, a new reality and a new spiritual oneness among all humanity.
Compiled by:-
Jaya Raju Thota, India
( JRT, India)