Happy Naw Ruz!

“If we are not happy and joyous at this season, for what other season shall we wait and for what other time shall we look?”

- ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Happy Naw Ruz from the Waimea Baha'i Community and friends celebrating the Feast of Baha, March 20, 2010

President Obama's Naw Ruz Message, 2010

Prime Minister sends UK Baha’is Naw-Ruz greetings

As Baha’is worldwide prepare to celebrate Naw-Ruz, the Baha’i New Year, on 21 March, Baha’is in the UK were pleased to receive a special greeting message for the annual parliamentary Naw-Ruz reception from Prime Minister Gordon Brown MP.

It gives me great pleasure to send my warm regards to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United Kingdom on the occasion of your annual reception.
This has been a difficult year for many Baha’is and I was deeply concerned to hear of the trial of the Yaran in January and of the arrest of other Baha’i members during the unrest in Iran during Ashura. Your dignity in the face of such discrimination is admirable and I have the utmost regard for your principles of equality and human rights.
I hope that this year brings both peace and prosperity to you all, and that in the months to come there can be a change for the better in the Iranian authorities’ attitude towards the Baha’i community in Iran.
[Signed: Gordon Brown]

UK Baha’is also welcomed a message of greeting from the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron MP:

I am delighted to send you my best wishes as you celebrate the Baha’i New Year at the reception on 22 March.
The New Year is always a time for spending with friends, family and the wider community, and for looking forward to the months ahead.
It is also a time for considering many of the principles which the Baha’i community hold dear – like social justice, and a concern for the environment – which are of importance to our society today.
May I send my good wishes to you and your families at this time.
[Signed: David Cameron]

Baha’is will conclude their annual 19-day period of fasting from sunrise to sunset at sunset on 20 March. Baha’i celebration of the Naw-Ruz festival, which coincides with the traditional Zoroastrian and Iranian New Year, will begin this evening. This year Naw-Ruz marks the beginning of the year 167 in the Baha’i calendar.