Ridvan, Festival of
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Christopher Buck, Ridvan, Festival of, bahai-library.com.
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744    Ridván, Festival of (April 20–May 2)
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worship.” Schools, often a focus of religious freedom issues, have been especially
called upon to organize events emphasizing the civil rights issues around religious
freedom. The U.S. Department of Education has issued a set of guidelines summa-
rizing the religious liberties of students in the public school system.
A coalition of organizations representing a spectrum of approaches to religious
freedom has joined to promote Religious Freedom Day. They include the Associ-
ation of American Educators, the Beckett Fund, the Council for America’s First
Freedom, Gateways to Better Education, the Institute on Religion and Democracy,
and the Providence Forum.
J. Gordon Melton
See also Human Rights Day; International Religious Freedom Day; World
Religion Day.

References
Religious Freedom Day. Posted at http://religiousfreedomday.com/. Accessed on July 15,
2010.

Ridván, Festival of (April 20–May 2)
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The Festival of Ridván is a 12-day festival. The 1st, 9th, and 12th days of Ridván
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are three of the nine Bahá’ı́ holy days on which work is to be suspended. Among
the Báhá’ı́ holy days, the Festival of Ridván (“Paradise”) is preeminent, for it
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marks the inception of the Bahá’ı́ Faith as a distinct religion. Observed from sun-
set on April 20 (marking the onset of April 21 in the Bahá’ı́ calendar) to sunset on
May 2, the Festival of Paradise comprises three Holy Days. On the 1st (April 21),
9th (April 29), and 12th (May 2) days of Ridván, Bahá’ı́ communities will gather
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to commemorate the signal events of that historic occasion.
The Bahá’ı́ Faith, one of the youngest world religions, was founded by Mı́rzá
husayn-‘Alı́ Núrı́ (1817–1892), a Persian nobleman known by his spiritual title,
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Bahá’u’lláh (“Glory/Splendor of God”). The Bahá’ı́ religion is also regarded as
having been cofounded by Bahá’u’lláh’s predecessor and harbinger, Sayyid ‘Alı́-
Muhammad of Shiraz (1819–1850), known as the Báb (“the Gate”).
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The unfolding of Bahá’u’lláh’s prophetic mission was gradual, progressively
revealed in a series of disclosures. The “Festival of Paradise” commemorates
Bahá’u’lláh’s private disclosure of his eschatological identity to a handful of his
companions—around four years prior to his public proclamation to the rulers and
religious leaders of the world (c. 1867–1873). To a select few Bábı́s, Bahá’u’lláh
announced that he was the “Promised One” foretold by the Báb. To a select group
of the world’s most powerful potentates and clerics, Bahá’u’lláh sent open epistles,
proclaiming himself to be the “Promised One” foretold by the prophets of all past
religions. In these “Tablets” (as the epistles were called), together with general Tab-
lets addressed to kings and ecclesiastics collectively, Bahá’u’lláh stated that he was,
Ridván, Festival of (April 20–May 2)          745
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inter alia, the long-awaited “World Reformer” who came to unify the world—a
transformation that would, in the course of time, come about through the power of
his universal principles and laws adapted to the needs of this day and age.
Briefly, the history of Ridván began on the afternoon of April 21, 1863 (around
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3:00 p.m.). Bahá’u’lláh arrived in the Najı́bı́yyih Garden, subsequently designated
as the “Garden of Ridván.” Located on the east bank of the Tigris in Baghdad,
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Najı́biyyih was once a wooded garden, where Muhammad-Najı́b Páshá (Turkish:
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Mehmed Necib, d. May 1851), governor of Baghdad (r. 1842–1847), had built a
palace and placed a wall around the garden. It is now the site of “Baghdad Medical
City” (formerly known as Saddam Medical City), a large modern teaching hospital
in Baghdad.
Bahá’u’lláh’s entrance into the Garden of Ridván signalized the commencement of
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his momentous announcement, first to his companions, and eventually to the world at
large. Exactly what transpired is shrouded in mystery, and accounts vary. Prior to this
time, Bahá’u’lláh had concealed his mission for 10 years (1853–1863). This period of
“messianic secrecy” has been referred to as the “Days of Concealment” (ayyám-i-
butun—a term that connotes the image of embryonic development), although
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Bahá’u’lláh’s  writings in Baghdad during this period are rife with hints about his pro-
phetic mission, especially in his preeminent doctrinal text, the Book of Certitude
(Kitáb-i-Íqán), which was revealed in two days and two nights in January 1861.
In 1869, as part of the subsequent public proclamation of his mission to the world’s
political and religious leaders, Bahá’u’lláh dispatched his second epistle (c. 1869) to
Napoleon III (d. 1873). In this “Tablet” (spirited out of Bahá’u’lláh’s prison cell by a
Bahá’ı́ pilgrim, who concealed the letter in the brim of his hat) to the emperor of
France, Bahá’u’lláh announced: “All feasts have attained their consummation in the
two Most Great Festivals, and in two other Festivals that fall on the twin days.” Here,
the two “Most Great Festivals” are the Festival of Ridván and the Declaration of the
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Báb (evening of May 22, 1844). The “twin days” refer to the Birth of the Báb (Octo-
ber 20, 1819) and the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh (November 12, 1817).
The purport of what Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed on that momentous first day of
Ridván, beyond the declaration that he was “He Whom God will make manifest,”
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involves matters of great import in that Bahá’u’lláh had decreed three of his most
far-reaching laws, by (1) abrogating holy war, (2) asserting that no independent
Messenger of God (literally, “Manifestation of God”) after Bahá’u’lláh would
appear for at least a full 1,000 years, and (3) dispensing entirely with the Islamic
category of ritual impurity or “uncleanness” (najis). Bahá’u’lláh later recounted
this sweeping pronouncement in the Most Holy Book (the Kitáb-i-Aqdas):

God hath, likewise, as a bounty from His presence, abolished the concept of
“uncleanness,” whereby divers things and peoples have been held to be
impure. He, of a certainty, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Generous. Verily,
all created things were immersed in the sea of purification when, on that first
day of Ridván, We shed upon the whole of creation the splendours of Our
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746    Ridván, Festival of (April 20–May 2)
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most excellent Names and Our most exalted Attributes. (Bahá’u’lláh,
The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, 47)

The Festival of Ridván is important for yet another reason: most Bahá’ı́ elec-
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tions take place at this time. On the first day of Ridván (April 21), all local Bahá’ı́
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councils, each known as a Local Spiritual Assembly, is democratically elected, in
a “spiritual election” conducted prayerfully and meditatively.
The system of Bahá’ı́ elections is unique, both religiously and politically. Politi-
cal scientist Arash Abizadeh has observed that Bahá’ı́ elections are governed by
formal institutional rules and informal norms that specifically prohibit such famil-
iar features of the political landscape as nominations, competitive campaigns, vot-
ing coalitions, or parties. As an alternative model of democratic elections, Bahá’ı́
elections incorporate three core values at the individual, interpersonal, and institu-
tional levels: (1) the inherent dignity of each person; (2) the unity and solidarity of
persons collectively; and (3) the intrinsic justice, fairness, and transparency of
elected Bahá’ı́ institutions. Bahá’ı́ elections thus serve four primary functions:
(1) selection (electing representatives); (2) legitimation (authorizing Bahá’ı́ gov-
erning bodies in the eyes of the community at large); (3) education (cultivating
the spirit of responsibility in each Bahá’ı́ voter); and (4) integration (fostering sol-
idarity within the community as a whole).
National Bahá’ı́ conventions are also held during the Festival of Ridván for the
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purpose of electing national councils, each of which is called a National Spiritual
Assembly. An exception to the timing of these conventions occurs once every five
years, when the Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of
the Bahá’ı́ Faith, is elected during the Festival of Ridván. The next is scheduled for
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Ridván 2013, with national Bahá’ı́ elections rescheduled for May.
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The Festival of Ridván marks the inchoative establishment of the Bahá’ı́ reli-
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gion as a distinct faith-community through Bahá’u’lláh’s disclosure of his divine
authority. The Festival of Ridván also marks the progressive advancement of the
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Bahá’ı́ Faith as a distinct administrative order through the process of electing the
faith-community’s governing authorities.
Bahá’ı́s believe that in a future Golden Age—in which a self-governing world
commonwealth emerges as the fruit of social evolution enlightened by Bahá’ı́
sociomoral principles—the Festival of Ridván is destined to become the greatest
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celebratory event in the world, according to the teleological Bahá’ı́ vision of the
inevitable course of human history.
Christopher Buck
See also ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Ascension of; Ayyám-i-Há (Bahá’ı́ Intercalary Days); Báb,
Festival of the Birth of the; Báb, Festival of the Declaration of the; Báb, Martyrdom
of the; Bahá’ı́ Calendar and Rhythms of Worship; Bahá’ı́ Faith; Bahá’ı́ Fast;
Bahá’u’lláh, Ascension of; Bahá’u’lláh, Festival of the Birth of; Covenant, Day of
the; Naw-Rúz, Festival of; Nineteen-Day Feast (Bahá’ı́); Race Unity Day; World
Religion Day.
Rishi Panchami       747

References
Abizadeh, Arash. “Democratic Elections without Campaigns? Normative Foundations of
National Bahá’ı́ Elections.” World Order 37, no. 1 (2005): 7–49.
Bahá’u’lláh. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Bahá’ı́ World Centre, 1992.
Buck, Christopher. “The Eschatology of Globalization: Bahá’u’lláh’s Multiple-
Messiahship Revisited.” Studies in Modern Religions, Religious Movements and
the Babi-Bahá’ı́ Faiths, edited by Moshe Sharon, 143–78. Leiden: Brill Academic
Publishers, 2004.
Buck, Christopher. Symbol and Secret: Qur’an Commentary in Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i Íqán.
Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 2004. First published 1995.
Keil, Gerald. Time and the Bahá’ı́ Era: A Study of the Badı́‘ Calendar. Oxford: George
Ronald, 2008.
Walbridge, John. “Festival of Ridván.” In Sacred Acts, Sacred Space, Sacred Time,
232–41. Oxford: George Ronald, 1996.

Rishi Panchami

Rishi Panchami is a Hindu holiday with two related emphases. It is observed on
the fifth day after the new moon in the Hindu month of Bhadrapad (August–
September on the Common Era cal-
endar), which is the final day of the
primary Teej Festival, known as
Hartalika Teej, widely celebrated
across northern India and Nepal as
a women’s festival. It is also a day
set aside to show respect of the
seven legendary sages known as
the Sapta Rishis.
The celebration of Teej is directed
to Parvati, the wife of Shiva. She is
said to have fasted and practiced
various austere practices to win Shi-
va’s affections. Women observe a
strict fast dedicated to Shiva on the
day of Rishi Panchami. In some
regions, the fast is also observed by
men. Women begin the day with a
special ritual bath and will later in
the day visit temples dedicated to     Hindu women take turns pouring water on each
Shiva for an appropriate ritual. The   other while taking a ritual bath in the Bagmati
fast is usually broken following the   River during Rishi Panchami in Nepal. (Getty
Rishi Panchami puja (worship).         Images)
-- Ridvan, Festival of (Used by permission of the curator)