4. Feast Locations
From Letters Written on Behalf of Shoghi Effendi to Individual Believers
There is no objection to holding meetings in the open air as long as they are conducted with dignity.
(22 November 1941) [33]
Each city will have its own Spiritual Assembly, not a number of district ones. Naturally, district Nineteen Day Feasts can be held where there are very many Bahá’ís in one city.
(31 March 1949) [34]
The matter of where the Nineteen Day Feasts should be held is certainly one for the Spiritual Assembly to decide; but the Hazíratu’l-Quds seems the logical place on most occasions. Until the friends have a place of worship in …, this building will also be used for devotional meetings, as well as for administrative purposes.
If, under some circumstances, some special Feast is offered in the home of one of the believers, with the approval of the Spiritual Assembly, there can be no objection, but, generally speaking, he feels it better to use the Hazíratu’l-Quds.
(18 February 1954) [35]
From Letters Written by or on Behalf of the Universal House of Justice
We understand and appreciate the problems involved in the holding of Nineteen Day Feasts in the large cities such as New York and Los Angeles and we have no objection to your Assembly authorizing the Local Assembly to provide for the holding of the Feast in different localities as an experiment, if the Local Assembly so wishes, bearing in mind the following precautions:
The tendency in metropolitan areas is towards segregation, and therefore the Local Assembly should be alert to prevent a similar pattern developing in Bahá’í meetings by reason of the location of the Feast.
The Local Assembly should be watchful that neither the unity of the community nor control by the Local Assembly is dissipated by this practice.
(23 January 1967 written by the Universal House of Justice
to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States) [36]
Your letter of August 9th posing the problem of holding Nineteen Day Feasts and other Bahá’í activities in the two communities … which have grown so large that it is impossible to conduct such activities in homes is welcomed by us, and we hope you will meet this problem before long in other communities.
We leave it to your discretion as to whether these large communities should purchase adequate facilities to accommodate the believers at Feasts and other Bahá’í activities, rent facilities, or hold several simultaneous Feasts, still utilizing homes.
(21 August 1972 written by the Universal House of Justice
to the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska) [37]
Difficulties of travelling to the Nineteen Day Feasts, and other occasions, which may be met in certain parishes can be overcome by your authorizing the Local Assembly in such a parish to hold more than one Feast within its area. There is no need to establish rigid boundaries for such a purpose, and the friends should be allowed to attend the Feast in their parish most convenient to them; but all should note that every Feast in the area is a portion of the same Feast under the jurisdiction of the Local Spiritual Assembly. Occasions should be provided for the entire Bahá’í community of the parish to meet together, and Feast days should not be excluded from such occasions.
(14 January 1980 written on behalf of the Universal House
of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of Barbados
and the Windward Islands) [38]
As to the question of holding meetings to commemorate Bahá’í Holy Days on a regional basis, the House of Justice ruled that it may be desirable in certain areas for the believers in neighbouring localities to join together with other communities in observing Holy Days and certain events. Such matters should be referred to and determined by National Spiritual Assemblies. Observance of the Nineteen Day Feast and other local activities, however, should be held in the respective civil areas.
(20 March 1986 written on behalf of the Universal House of
Justice to an individual believer) [39]
The problems implied by your inquiry are not insurmountable. For instance, The Local Spiritual Assembly could be authorized to appoint an administrative committee in each of a number of sub-units of the city; and these committees could deal with the urgent needs of the friends in these areas on behalf of the Assembly; and if it found it desirable, the Spiritual Assembly could authorize the holding of separate Nineteen Day Feasts in several sub-units. In such a decentralized system, the Local Spiritual Assembly would have to provide for the overall coordination of the efforts of the friends in all sub-units of the city.
The sub-division of the city should be seen merely as an administrative necessity meant to serve the good of the whole community; in this sense, the Assembly should guard strenuously against creating too many sub-units, contenting itself with the minimum action in this respect. Given the racial and social stratification of large cities, the Spiritual Assembly would also have to exert the utmost care not to allow the Bahá’í community of … to become, in effect, racially or socially fragmented, even though one race or stratum of society may be dominant in a sub-unit of the city. One of the questions that should remain uppermost in the minds of the Assembly, the committees and the individual friends is how to uphold at all times, through their functions and deeds, the primary principle and goal of our Faith, namely, the unity of the human race.
(20 December 1987 written on behalf of the Universal House
of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United
States) [40]
