Author Archives: Alexander

What an amazing way to celebrate the Bicentenary of the birth of the Báb

Category : Uncategorized

What an absolutely incredible end to our Bicentenary of the Báb celebrations! A two-day mini family street festival in South Belfast with food and music and lots of arts and crafts, then a lovely celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh with music and story-telling, and on Saturday, a beautiful artistic event of music and song and then Omid Djalili’s breath-taking performance of the absolutely mind-blowing, moving and funny, award-winning show A Strange Bit of History, written and directed by Annabel Knight. Omid had the 270 or so audience in the packed Stranmillis College theatre utterly spellbound!

Here are only a few of the comments and messages I heard and received after the show:

“Wow! I found all of it very moving and beautiful. I’m going to head home with beauty in my heart and quiet thoughts.”

“Absolutely amazing night! We feel so blessed we got the privilege to be there! Thank you again”

“It’s the kind of thing you wouldn’t want to miss”

Read the wonderful full page feature by journalist Anne Hailes about the show here:
https://www.irishnews.com/lifestyle/2019/11/11/news/anne-hailes-comedian-omid-djalili-one-man-show-about-baha-i-faith-enthralling-1759305/?fbclid=IwAR1294Wc143myLiWk9C6caHf0vxgXcEKBfqwblDThOiFKoQtpgNZYKSlj2c


Meeting with the Lord Mayor of Belfast, May 2019

Category : Uncategorized

On 13 May Jamie Anderson and Gemma Halligan from Belfast Bahá’í community had a very positive meeting with the Lord Mayor of Belfast Deirdre Hargey and presented her a Bahá’í book. The Lord Mayor mentioned her underpinning themes for the year were diversity, inclusion, and rights for all citizens.

Jamie and Gemma were able to share the teachings of the Faith, about the oneness of humanity, progressive revelation, gender equality, and a discussion about community development in the City. They also spoke about the pattern of Baha’i life such as Feasts, Summer school, Holy days and worship.

It was a very warm encounter in which the Lord Mayor showed great willingness to assist the Bahá’í community to host future events in her parlour and the City Hall to foster community relations across the city.


Fantastic weekend of celebrations and activities to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh

Category : News & Events

In October 2017, Bahá’ís around the world, together with their families, friends, neighbours and colleagues, celebrated the bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’i Faith.

What a fantastic weekend of celebrations and activities to mark the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh as well as the Birth of the Báb!

The festivities kicked off on Friday evening in Grosvenor House in Belfast, marking the inauguration of the Twin Holy Birthdays of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. We celebrated the life of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh as the Twin Luminaries of this age with presentations from children and junior youth of different backgrounds and traditions from across Belfast and further afield. In the weeks leading to the event, the children’s classes and junior youth in Belfast had prepared artistic presentations about Bahá’u’lláh. Beautiful maps were displayed which showed the exiles of Bahá’u’lláh and stories were told of His life by children on stage.

Saturday, in celebration of this momentous occasion was filled with acts of service. And in the evening, there was a beautiful event in Ulster Museum which over 130 people attended including the Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast, a previous Lord mayor, and representatives of other Faiths. The programme included musical performances, narrated stories, an uplifting AV presentation about Bahá’u’lláh and the Baha’i world, along with a specially commissioned film “Growing unity at the grassroots” about the Windsor neighbourhood JY groups and children’s classes. One of the highlights was a twelve voice SATB choir ending the evening with the moving “The Power of love “(words of ‘Abdu’l- Bahá). The positive discussions and enthusiastic feedback after the presentations attested to a truly memorable experience.

Sunday saw the Bicentenary Festival Finale! In this family fun event we celebrated the birthday of Bahá’u’lláh in St. Nicholas Hall. There were around 80 people of various ages and backgrounds. Most people had been involved in the activities in Windsor area. The programme included singing and dancing and a potluck dinner followed by everyone dancing!