While many Americans will be celebrating Memorial Day this weekend, approximately 5 million adherents of the Bahá’í faith will be celebrating the beginning of their religion: the Declaration of the Báb.
The celebration commenced two hours, 11 minutes after sunset Friday, according to The Huffington Post, which is the exact time that the Báb declared himself.
Bahá’ís suspend work for this holiday and celebrate with prayers, including this special prayer, storytelling and reflections on the journey of their religion as well as their individual spiritual journey.
The Bahá’í faith believes God entrusted the mission of spreading his message of a unified society with two prophets: the Báb and the Bahá’u’lláh.
The Báb, which translates to “gate” or “door” in Arabic, first unveiled himself as the messenger of God to a young scholar named Mulla Husayn on May 22, 1844, in modern-day Iran. According to the Bahá’í International Community, the Báb was a young Persian merchant named Siyyid ‘Alí Muhammad, and he is referred to as the Herald of the Bahá’í faith (Bahá’u’lláh is the central prophet of the faith).
His revolutionary message of moral reformation, gender equality and catering to the poor, stirred excitement among people of all ages and social classes and attracting thousands of followers.
“The Báb was the symbolic gate between past ages of prophecy and a new age of fulfillment for humanity,” according to the Bahá’í International Community. “His primary purpose was to awaken the people to the fact that a new period in human history had begun, one which would witness the unification of the entire human race and the emergence of a world civilization of spiritual and material prosperity.”
Regarding the new religion as a threat, the Persian government jailed and killed many of the Bahá'í followers. Six years after his declaration, the Báb was sentenced to execution for apostasy, according to Religion News Service.
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