Bicentenary Poems and Prose

The Feast: To The Bab

The Feast:
To The Bab

"This Feast was established by His Highness the Bab, to occur once in nineteen days. Likewise, [Baha’u’llah] hath commanded, encourage and reiterated it. Therefore, it hath the utmost importance. Undoubtedly you must give the greatest attention to its establishment and raise it to the highest point of importance, so that it may become continual and constant. The believers of God must assemble and associate with each other in the utmost love, joy and fragrance. They must conduct themselves (in these Feasts) with the greatest dignity and consideration, chant divine verses, peruse instructive articles, read the Tablets of Abdul-Baha, encourage and inspire each other with love for the whole human race, invoke God with perfect joy and fragrance, sing the verses, glorifications and praises of the Self-subsistent Lord and deliver eloquent speeches. The owner of the house must personally serve the beloved ones. He must seek after the comfort of all and with the utmost humility he must show forth kindness to every one. If the Feast is arranged in this manner and in the way mentioned, that supper is the “Lord’s supper,” for the result is the same result and the effect is the same effect."

Abdu’l-Baha12

Part of the Bab's living legacy,
the Nineteen day Feast
is the Lord's Super transformed
by time and faith
into a sacred institution
divided into three portions:
devotional,
consultative,
and social.

The Bab
inaugurated the Nineteen-Day Feast,
and Baha'u'llah confirmed it;
thus it became
an intricate part
of Baha'i community life.

Poet's Note: ▼

This is poem 156 of the 200 I am writing to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Birth of The Bab. Inspired by The Bab’s Influence on Baha’i Devotions   by Christopher Buck.

Footnotes
1  Tablets of Abdul-Baha, Volume 2, pp. 468–469.
2  Quoted in The Bab’s Influence on Baha’i Devotions Christopher Buck https://bahaiteachings.org/babs-influence-bahai-devotions.