Nineteen Day Feast - Purpose

Purpose

Bahá'ís see the Feast in both practical and spiritual terms. It is both an administrative meeting, and at the same time it is an uplifting spiritual event, and thus it has a central purpose to the Bahá'í community life.

The Nineteen Day Feast serves to increase the unity of the community, and spiritually uplift the community members by having a devotional program, where readings and prayers from the Bahá'í holy writings are shared, and a social program where community members can socialize.

"As to the Nineteen Day Feast, it rejoiceth mind and heart. If this feast be held in the proper fashion, the friends will, once in nineteen days, find themselves spiritually restored, and endued with a power that is not of this world."

`Abdu'l-Bahá: Selection from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 91

As an administrative meeting, the Feast provides an opportunity for the community to report news, or other salient items of interest to the community, and allows for communication and consultation between the community and the Local Spiritual Assembly.

"...The main purpose of the Nineteen Day Feasts is to enable individual believers to offer any suggestion to the Local Assembly which in its turn will pass it to the National Spiritual Assembly. The Local Assembly is, therefore, the proper medium through which local Bahá'í communities can communicate with body of the national representative..."

From letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, November 18, 1933

While attending the Nineteen Day Feast is not obligatory, its importance is stressed since it allows for consultation between the individual members, the community and the Local Spiritual Assembly, as well as increasing the unity of the community.

"In regard to the Nineteen Day feasts, Shoghi Effendi is of the opinion that the believers should be impressed with the importance of attending these gatherings which, in addition to their spiritual significance, constitute a vital medium for maintaining close and continued contact between the believers themselves, and also between them and the body of their elected representatives in the local community."

Letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, 22 December 1934