Bahá'í Calendar
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Bahá'í Calendar

Bahá'í Calendar 181 B.E.



The Bahá'í Faith like many other global religions—has its own unique calendar.

The Báb, the Herald of this Faith, instituted that new calendar, known as the Badíʿ (Badíʿ means wondrous or unique), during the six-year period (1844-1850) of his revelation. The first year is dated from 21 March 1844 CE, the year during which the Báb proclaimed his religion. Years are annotated with the date notation of BE (Bahá'í Era).

The year 176 BE will start on the day of the vernal equinox (in Tehran) in 2019, that is on 21 March 2019.

The Bahá'í Calendar started from the original Badíʿ Calendar, created by the Báb in the Kitabu'l-Asmá' and the Persian Bayán (5:3) in the 1840s. An early version of the calendar began to be implemented during his time. It used a scheme of 19 months of 19 days (19×19) for 361 days, plus intercalary days to make the calendar a solar calendar. The first day of the early implementation of the calendar year was Nowruz (the Persian New Year) while the intercalary days were assigned differently than the later Bahá'í implementation. The calendar contains many symbolic meanings and allusions including connections to prophecies of the Báb about the next Manifestation of God termed He whom God shall make manifest.

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, who claimed to be the one prophesied by the Báb, confirmed and adopted this calendar. Around 1870, he instructed Nabíl-i-A`zam, the author of The Dawn-Breakers, to write an overview of the Badíʿ calendar. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (1873) Bahá'u'lláh made Naw-Rúz the first day of the year, and also clarified the position of the Intercalary days to immediately precede the last month. Bahá'u'lláh set Naw-Rúz to the day on which the sun passes into the constellation Aries. Bahá'ís interpret this formula as a specification of the vernal equinox. The calendar was first implemented in the West in 1907.

The Bahá'í scriptures left some issues regarding the implementation of the Badíʿ calendar to be resolved by the Universal House of Justice before the calendar can be observed uniformly worldwide. On 10 July 2014, the Universal House of Justice announced provisions that will enable the common implementation of the Badíʿ calendar worldwide, beginning at sunset 20 March 2015.

The Bahá'í Calendar in western countries was synchronized to the Gregorian calendar, meaning that the extra day of a leap year occurred simultaneously in both calendars. The intercalary days stretched from 26 February to 1 March, automatically including the Gregorian leap day. There were 4 intercalary days in a regular year, and 5 in a leap year.

The practice in western countries was to start the year at sunset on March 20, regardless of when the vernal equinox technically occurs.

For eastern countries where the Islamic lunar calendar was used, the Bahá'í Calendar synchronized with the Islamic Lunar calendar. For example, the births of The Báb and of Bahá'u'lláh were commemorated according to their corresponding lunar calendar dates, which were the 1st and 2nd days, respectively, of the month of Muharram. Thus, the commemoration of these anniversaries would drift backwards about 11 days each year, and could therefore be gradually celebrated at any season (spring, winter, autumn, summer) of the year.

In 2014, the Universal House of Justice selected Tehran, the birthplace of Bahá'u'lláh, as the location to which the date of the vernal equinox is to be fixed, thereby "unlocking" the Badíʿ calendar from the Gregorian calendar. For determining the dates, astronomical tables from reliable sources are used.

In the same message the Universal House of Justice decided that the birthdays of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh will be celebrated on "the first and the second day following the occurrence of the eighth new moon after Naw-Rúz" (also with the use of astronomical tables) and fixed the dates of the Bahá'í Holy Days in the Bahá'í Calendar, standardizing dates for Bahá'ís worldwide. By this decision, the Badíʿ calendar was "unlocked" from the Islamic lunar calendar, as the celebration of the birthdays of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh are no longer connected to the month of Muharram, and therefore do not drift continually backward by about 11 days, from year to year. These changes came into effect as of sunset on 20 March 2015.

According to the new calendar, every day begins and ends at sunset. Based on the solar year, the Baha’i year is composed of 19 months of 19 days each, which equals 361 days. To fill in the additional four or five days in each of the Earth’s trips around the sun, the Bahá'í calendar adds four extra days (five in a leap year) called Intercalary Days, or in Arabic, Ayyam-i-Há (which literally means “days of five.”) On those additional days, Bahá'ís traditionally celebrate and help the needy.

In his Most Holy Book, Bahá'u'lláh assigned those four or five “excess” intercalary days a fixed position in the calendar, immediately before the Bahá'í month of Loftiness (or Alá), the 19-day period of fasting.

The letter Há has several spiritual meanings, and one of them symbolizes the Essence of God. During Intercalary Days, Bahá'u'lláh encouraged his followers to devote time to feasting, rejoicing and charity. For Bahá'ís, the intercalary days are specially set aside for hospitality, the giving of gifts, and charitable endeavors:

“Charity is pleasing and praiseworthy in the sight of God and is regarded as a prince among goodly deeds … Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”

“The essence of charity is for the servant to recount the blessings of his Lord, and to render thanks unto Him at all times and under all conditions.”      – Ibid., p. 156.

This year and every year, then, Bahá'ís all around the globe will celebrate Intercalary Days with this beautiful passage from Bahá'u'lláh in mind:

“O people of the world …Thus hath the Day-Star of Utterance shone forth above the horizon of the Book as decreed by Him Who is the Lord of the beginning and the end. Let the days in excess of the months be placed before the month of fasting. We have ordained that these, amid all nights and days, shall be the manifestations of the letter Há, and thus they have not been bounded by the limits of the year and its months. It behoveth the people of Bahá, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name; and when they end—these days of giving that precede the season of restraint—let them enter upon the Fast …”

– The Most Holy Book, p. 25.

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