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The Bahá'í Calendar
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Pages 178-179
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The Bahá'í Calendar
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Among different peoples and at different times many different
methods have been adopted for the measurement of time
and fixing of dates, and several different calendars are still in
daily use, e.g., the Gregorian in Western Europe, the Julian in
many countries of Eastern Europe, the Hebrew among the
Jews, and the Muhammadan in Muslim communities.
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The Báb signalized the importance of the dispensation
which He came to herald, by inaugurating a new calendar. In
this, as in the Gregorian Calendar, the lunar month is abandoned
and the solar year is adopted.
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The Bahá'í year consists of 19 months of 19 days each (i.e.
361 days), with the addition of certain "Intercalary Days"
(four in ordinary and five in leap years) between the eighteenth
and nineteenth months in order to adjust the calendar
to the solar year. The Báb named the months after the attributes
of God. The Bahá'í New Year, like the ancient Persian
New Year, is astronomically fixed, commencing at the
March equinox (usually March 21), and the Bahá'í era commences
with the year of the Báb's declaration (i.e. 1844 A.D.,
1260 A.H.).
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In the not far distant future it will be necessary that all peoples
in the world agree on a common calendar.
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It seems, therefore, fitting that the new age of unity should
have a new calendar free from the objections and associations
which make each of the older calendar unacceptable to large
sections of the world's population, and it is difficult to see how
any other arrangement could exceed in simplicity and convenience
that proposed by the Báb.
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The months in the Bahá'í Calendar are as follows:
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7 |
| Arabic Name | Translation | First Days |
1st | Bahá | Splendor | March 21 |
2nd | Jalál | Glory | April 9 |
3rd | Jamál | Beauty | April 28 |
4th | Azamat | Grandeur | May 17 |
5th | Núr | Light | June 5 |
6th | Rahmat | Mercy | June 24 |
7th | Kalímát | Words | July 31 |
8th | Kamál | Perfection | Aug. 1 |
9th | Asma' | Names | Aug. 20 |
10th | `Izzat | Might | Sept. 8 |
11th | Mashíyyat | Will | Sept. 27 |
12th | `Ilm | Knowledge | Oct.16 |
13th | Qudrat | Power | Nov. 4 |
14th | Qawl | Speech | Nov. 23 |
15th | Masa'il | Questions | Dec. 12 |
16th | Sharaf | Honor | Dec. 31 |
17th | Sultán | Sovereignty | Jan. 19 |
18th | Mulk | Dominion | Feb. 7 |
Intercalary Days Feb. 26 to March 1, inclusive. |
19th | `Alá | Loftiness | March 2 |
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