Baha'i Holidays - Beginning of the Baha'i Fast

March is a special month in the Bahá'í calendar because it is a period of fasting for 19 days These days, followers of the religion refuse food and water Abstinence lasts from sunrise to sunset Minor children under fifteen years of age, pregnant and lactating women, travelers, sick and elderly persons are exempt from fasting Due to the fact that fasting ends on the eve of Nowruz (the holiday of the arrival of spring and the New Year according to the solar astronomical calendar), it always falls during the same period of time - the spring months in the northern hemisphere and the autumn months in the southern hemisphere The fast is observed as follows At sunrise, Baha'is wake up and begin the new day by reciting prayers, and only after that have breakfast In some regions, people eat first and then begin prayers Fasting is not only a “fasting period”, and prayer plays a very important role in this matter Every day, while reciting the obligatory prayer, Baha'is take stock of the past day and recharge themselves with energy for the next In a similar way, the post sums up the results of the past year and energizes us for the future Bahá'ís are a monotheistic religious movement whose founder is considered to be Bahá'u'lláh, who was born in 1817 and lived until 1892 The international center is located in Haifa Baha'i is one of the few revealed religions to have a personal collection of sacred books The faith originated in the 19th century, thanks to its creator Bahá'u'lláh Today it has over 5 million adherents The essence of the teaching is the inextricable unity with God, faith and humanity The Scripture says that the only religion on Earth is faith in the Lord Religions, like pyramids, have several sides and only one top from which they all emanate, this point is God himself It doesn't matter which side of the pyramid a person chooses, because sooner or later he will reach the expected goal - the overall top Like all believers, Baha'is strictly adhere to fasting, starting on March 2 and continuing until the 20th It consists of completely abstaining from food from dawn to sunset In addition, drinking water and smoking are prohibited There are no restrictions on the quality of food - after midnight you are allowed to eat whatever you want, the main thing is in moderate doses The key task of fasting is to cleanse thoughts, body and soul, to think about life and its real values