Last night was Erev (night before–little Jewish humor for ya) the Birth of Baha’u’llah. Baha’u’llah was the founding figure of the Baha’i Faith, which Amy has been part of since her 20s, and since the faith started in what’s now Iran most of the Baha’i folks in our local community are Iranian exiles. There is no clergy in the faith, and so worship happens in community gatherings at people’s homes (or a center in a bigger city), centered on readings and prayers. I’ve spent a fair share of time looking contemplatively at the weave of Persian carpets listening to prayers chanted in Farsi. This would be kind of like a Japanese person marrying into a Jewish family and paging through a Marc Chagall siddur at Passover every year, taking in the vibe and wondering what it’s all really about.
An ecumenical spread: from left: Persian candy-cookies, “Hajjibullin” (sic), Amy’s cupcakes
The vibe is recent immigrants, having left Iran for work or study or with urgency, many of whom have achieved professional success and comfort in the US, and all of whom are grateful for the religious liberty that is denied them by the Iranian regime. But there is always the saudades of the emigrant for home, plus sadness over what is happening to Baha’is in Iran. The Baha’is in Newton were glad to be able to celebrate the birth of Baha’u’llah with some special grub that someone had brought back from Iran. I’ll just quote without comment the explanation of the round cookies above: “A Muslim person who has been on the Hajj to Mecca is called Hajji. The baker who invented these cookies must have been a Hajji, and these cookies look sort of like nuts, so they are called Hajjibullin (sic), or Hajji’s Nuts. But I guess when they translate the name into English they use a different word.” It’s true: there is no other way to describe the taste except as Hajji’s Nuts!
A Baha’i nine-pointed star pendant for those serving in the US Armed Forces
Baha’is are forbidden from combat, but they do serve in the US Armed Forces in noncombatant roles. The juxtaposition of the Baha’i holiday and Veterans Day made me grateful that our armed forces, while full of their own troubles, have at times been able to push US society forward in some aspects of equality of opportunity. Not that this is a good standard of comparison, but suffice to say you don’t find too many Iranian Jews or Baha’is in the Revolutionary Guard.
Miss A. and a friend demonstrate the sheer happiness and sense of virtuous giving that comes from buying a Hostess Cupcake at the bake sale. They are kind of slumming here since we mostly were selling home made cupcakes and cookies.
As an act of service for the holiday and for her Peacemakers class, Amy organized a bake sale at a local playground. The children in her class chose to raise money to benefit people in NY/NJ still recovering from the storm. On any other mid-November afternoon it would have been a hellish mock-prison camp exercise for the girls to have them cavorting in high-40s and light rain on the fall-safe squishy playground surface. But today it was 70 and sunny, and the group sold out, earning [a decent amount].