Baha’i Fasting Period

From 2-20 March, Baha’is worldwide observe the annual fasting period by refraining from eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. As in many world religions, the Fast is a time for reflecting on one’s spiritual progress and making an effort to detach from material desires.

During the Fast, Baha’is age 15 and older typically rise before dawn to eat breakfast and pray. At sunset they break the Fast, often gathering with Baha’i friends to enjoy a meal together. The following are exempt from fasting, as it could be harmful to their health: those younger than 15 and older than 70, the ill or infirm, women who are pregnant, nursing or menstruating, travelers and those engaged in heavy physical labor.

The 19 day Fast is “essentially a period of meditation and prayer, of spiritual recuperation, during which the believer must strive to make the necessary readjustments in his inner life, and to refresh and reinvigorate the spiritual forces latent in his soul. Its significance and purpose are, therefore, fundamentally spiritual in character.” (Baha’i Reference Library)

‘Abdu’l-Bahá stated about the Fast, “This material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.”

After sunset on 20 March – the eve of the vernal equinox – Baha’is throughout the world will celebrate Naw-Ruz, the start of the Baha’i New Year. For Baha’is this is a religious holiday that marks the end of the nineteen day Fast. It is one of the nine Baha’i holy days on which work and school is to be suspended.