While others are decking the halls with boughs of holly or placing Hanukkah menorahs in their windows, Baha’is are enjoying the goodwill feeling of the season and appreciating its spiritual nature. Some Baha’is celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah at the homes of family members or friends who are not Baha’is, while looking forward to Ayyam-i-Ha (Feb. 26 through March 1), which is the time of gift-giving for Baha’is.
Since the Baha'i Faith is only 165 years old, many Baha’is have converted to the Faith from another religion. Here’s how a few Chicago-area Baha’is experience the winter holidays.
Edward Price
Jewish background
Edward Price
I celebrated Hanukkah with friends and relatives when I was growing up, and I remember getting and giving many gifts during those years. Despite these experiences, in my teen years I became very unfriendly to all religion and turned toward atheism. But in college I met a remarkable girl who was able to debate me, confidently and without an attitude of conflict, on any religious question I would throw at her. Mary, a Baha’i, was able to turn me away from atheism and toward Baha'u'llah. I became a Baha'i on the first day of my second year in college, in 1973. I experienced my first Christmas ever a few months later as a new Baha'i with many Christian friends. I thus discovered not only the love of Christ, but also an abiding appreciation to Baha'u'llah for having opened my life to such new and wonderful experiences.
Years later I married a lovely Baha'i from a Christian background. She has fond memories of Christmas Eve services, and last year I attended my first Christmas Eve candlelight service with her. It was beautiful, and we plan to go again this year with our daughter, Alyssa.
Alyssa Price, 7
Baha'i background
Alyssa Price
I like the winter holidays because I have lots of time to go ice-skating with my best friend, Abigail, and I get Christmas gifts from my grandma and papa. I love Ayyam-i-Ha because we decorate the house and have parties and because I get fun gifts. My mom plays a game by hiding my gifts in the house, and it’s fun trying to find them. She also helps me make cookies in the shape of a nine-pointed star (a symbol of the Baha'i Faith). At Baha'i School we do projects to help other people. One year we gave gift packages to people at homeless shelters. Another year we did crafts with people at a nursing home.
Abigail Groetzinger, 10
Baha'i background
Abigail Groetzinger
I love the Christmas holiday because I get to hang out with my best friend, Alyssa, who goes to another school. I get gifts at Christmas from people in my family who are not Baha'is. Alyssa and I give each other gifts at Ayyam-i-Ha. We know each other so well that we know what the other person would like. At Baha'i School we do projects to make others happy. One year we went to someone’s home to sing to her.
Jeremy Lambshead
Christian background
Jeremy Lambshead
I look forward to celebrating Christmas with my family, who appreciate the fact that the Baha'i Faith acknowledges the divinity of Jesus. As a new Baha'i, I’ll be celebrating Ayyam-i-Ha this year. And I look forward again to giving gifts to my family. I realize at this time of year that the Baha'i Faith’s belief in progressive revelation – that the world's major religions are part of a single, progressive process through which God reveals His will to humanity – makes me feel as connected with Christianity as I did during my upbringing.
Joyce Litoff
Jewish background
Joyce Litoff
I’m the only Baha'i in my family, and I have the best of both worlds. I celebrate Hanukkah with my husband and kids by lighting candles and eating traditional foods – latkes and sufganiyot (Israeli jelly doughnuts) -- but we downplay the gift-giving part of the holiday. Ayyam-i-Ha is also a time of gift-giving. Last year my kids -- Aaron, 12 and Nina, 16 -- surprised me by giving me a beautiful bathrobe.
Charla Edmonstone-Pickens
and Pierre Pickens
Baha'i background
Charla and Pierre Pickens
Charla
My dad grew up as a Baha'i and my mother grew up Baptist, so when I was young my parents and five siblings and I celebrated Christmas. On Christmas Eve we had a little tradition in which my dad would make a circle of candles, one for each Divine Manifestation –Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah – with a candle for Christ in the middle because it was His birthday we were celebrating that night.
My dad would talk about each Manifestation as he lit each candle. As the evening passed, the wax of the candles would begin to melt into each other making a beautiful design. My dad would teach us that this was a wonderful way to symbolize the Baha'i belief in the oneness of religions.
Pierre
I grew up as a Baha'i, and, as I got older, have studied Christianity and Christ from a spiritual perspective and gotten so much out of it. When I was young I loved getting Christmas gifts from Christian family members. But as an adult I view Christmas as a time to celebrate the spirit of Christ. Charla and I do that with family members who are not Baha’is, and we make our gift-giving holiday Ayyam-i-Ha.
Heather Ivanov
Baha’i background
Heather Ivanov
When I was growing up in Gainesville, Fla., we celebrated Ayyam-i-Ha at home and Christmas at my paternal grandparents’ house. This year my 6-1/2-year-old daughter, Danielle, will purchase gifts for family members at her school’s holiday store. But her main gift-giving holiday is Ayyam-i-Ha.
Danielle is a fourth-generation Baha'i. My great-grandparents became Baha’is in Wisconsin in the early 1900s. One of the principles of the Baha'i Faith is independent investigation of truth, so, while I am raising her as a Baha'i, when Danielle is older I’ll encourage her, like my mother did me, to investigate other religions.
Danielle Ivanov, 6 ½
Baha'i background
Danielle Ivanov
I like Christmas because Santa comes through the window with gifts, and I get gifts from people in my family who aren’t Baha'is. Ayyam-i-Ha is really special because I visit friends and get one gift for each day of the holiday. I get good gifts like art supplies and books.
Original story published in 2006