FAYETTEVILLE — Colorful Christmas lights adorned the mantle at the Fayetteville home of Terry and Shelly Pittman.
“They’re not really for Christmas,” Shelly explained. “We have our own celebration.”
The Pittmans follow the Baha’i faith. The celebration is Ayyami-Ha, four days of fellowship, gift giving and preparing for a fast.
Ayyam-i-Ha takes place immediately prior to the faith’s annual 19-day fast - loosely comparable with and much more subdued than Mardi Gras and Lent, Terry said. A local party Friday night became a time to visit the sick and offer hospitality, she said.
The Pittmans and all Baha’i fast from sunrise to sundown for the next 19 days, beginning today.
“It’s a time of prayer and meditation,” Terry explained. “We detach from the physical and move to the spiritual.”
The main teaching materials of Baha’i insist that all are servants made in the image of God, Shelly said.
“We live on one earth, and people are coming together all the time,” Shelly explained. “The teachings indicate the whole earth is one family. We all have the same god, and God is the god of all. We interact spiritually and recognize that the oneness is more important than the community or national community.”
Thus, Baha’i create interactions for all with children and teen classes, study circles and more in neighborhoods, in their homes, explained Janet Wilson. “We invite our neighbors to come.”
“And there just seem to be a lot of opportunities during the fast to meet seekers,” Terry Pittman said.
“Connections just occur.” NOT SO FAST
These local Baha’i members report the fast is not hard to keep - despite living in today’s junkfood, overweight, culinary culture.
“The hunger is also a spiritual hunger,” Wilson said.
Baha’i followers focus on meditation and prayer during the 19 days of the fast. And members sing hymns and chants written by their founding prophet, Baha’u’llah.
The 19 days make up the month immediately preceding the Baha’i new year, which occurs the day of the vernal equinox, the website Baha’i Faith shares. The period of fasting is therefore viewed as a time of spiritual preparation and regeneration for a new year’s activities.
Many Baha’i also choose this time to develop their traits of oneness - trustworthiness, kindness, passion, honor, forgiveness.
“A profession of your faith is never an imposition,” Wilson said of the fast.
“The first days can be dift cult as your body adjusts,” Wilson said.
“And then again when the clocks change. But I eat a big breakfast before sunrise.”
“I eat a big breakfast and am usually fine until about 2 o’clock,” Bromberek joked.
“(The fast) has a very spiritual experience,” Wilson said.
“You don’t focus on your physical needs. And when you have to wait to eat, everything tastes so good.
Somehow, it just seems to be a spiritual experience.
“It’s so freeing. You have a whole day to not think about it.”
The fast also offers Baha’i an opportunity to share their faith with others, who might notice the fast and ask about it.
“If you do it, it becomes simple,” Terry Pittman said.
Baha’i faith limits the fast, however. Some are prohibited, according to church teachings, from participating in the fast - the young and old, those who are ill, pregnant or nursing, have a serious medical condition, undertake heavy labor or are traveling more than nine hours, Wilson listed.
“If there’s a problem with the fast, you fix it. If you need to breakthe fast for any reason, you break it,” Terry said.
“Nobody’s going to check up on you, come down on you,” Wilson added.
“It’s between you and your conscience,” Bromberek commented.
“The fast is not meant to be a physical punishment.” TEACHINGS SHARED
The Baha’i faith was born in Persia - now Iran - in 1844, Bromberek explained.
The founder, Baha’u’llah, came to Earth as one of the many manifestations of God on Earth when he was writing 170 years ago, the faithful believe. He was exiled from Persia and the Ottoman Empire and ended up in jail in Israel, where he did his writing, Terry Pittman said.
“The concept of Baha’i is progressive revelations of God, revelations of the word of God,” Pittman explained. “It wasn’t a onetime event (as with Jesus Christ), but God sends a messenger every thousand years.”
Jesus also presented one of those manifestations, Bromberek explained -as did Baha’u’llah, Allah, Buddha.
“They all are a refl ection of the same spirit,” he said. “Jesus’ teachings are all accepted by the Baha’i faith because they all come from one God.”
Shelly Pittman spent 40 years of her life as a Christian. “Personally, (with the teachings of Baha’i), there’s no lowering of the station of Christ,” she said.
“Through Baha’u’llah’s writings, the world of the New Testament was opened up for me. I love Christ, and I want more.
“Baha’u’llah lifts and praises Christianity. Through his writings, I understand so much more.
God is the sun, Bromberek explained, and Jesus, Muhammad, Allah, Buddah and all other religious leaders are “prophets - a mirror reflecting the sun who is holy. The rays of the sun are these refl ections.
“They are all a refl ection of one manifestation, and all are revered in Baha’i.”
All faiths’ teachings share similarities on basic spiritual tenants - such as forgiveness, Wilson said.
“It’s the followers who add in a lot of stuff .”
“Spirituality focuses on fasting, prayer and social teachings,” Bromberek continued.
“And the social teachingsmust change from time to time. And sometimes it’s hard to change.”
“As a messenger, the prophet has a special energy to lead the people to progress,” Terry continued.
“And Baha’u’llah was not talking about just his area, he was talking for all the world,” she said passionately.
“He was a fulfillment of the past and a sharer of knowledge.”
Religion, Pages 8 on 03/02/2013