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

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!