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Home Book Collections Festival of Ridván

Festival of Ridván

via Ashia
Published: Updated: 805 views

Raising Luminaries & Books for Littles are free and accessible for readers who can’t afford a paywall. Check out the full affiliate disclosure along with my statement of accountability.


Festival of Ridván

I can’t get my hands on any engaging books on the Bahá’í faith. There are some stories that point out it exists (okaaay) and didactic stories with painful rhyming, but the Earthquakes do a hard NOPE to that sort of story.

Ridván is a (the?) most significant holiday of the Bahá’í year, but I still haven’t found a good resource to help non-practicing kids understand why it’s important. So let’s explore videos.

For older kids (maybe 10+), here’s a primer and brief introduction to the Bahá’í faith (went too fast for my 8yo) and what is Bahá’í (went on too long and my kids lost interest).

If you have older kids (6+) who are already familiar with Bahá’í practices, this video on ‘What is Ridván‘ could work. But without a basic primer on the faith, it just left us newbies more confused. And this one, ‘The Baha’i Festival of Ridvan for children‘ is a close shot – but you’re gonna have to prepare kids to explain terms like ‘spiritual,’ ‘promised one,’ and ‘paradise.’

The Earthquakes are familiar with major world religions and what ‘religion’ is – but us secular folks can find a good intro book explaining the Bahai’i faith, we’re gonna have to settle for trying to explain it in our own words. Worth noting that while kids books on Bahá’í festivals exist – I can’t find any that are published by mainstream publishers, which essentially bans them from libraries and schools.

Read

Still searching for decent books on people of the Bahá’í faith. While none of them are explicit, it’s worth checking out stories about our first Bahá’í Astronaut, Ronald McNair, in Ron’s Big Mission.

There’s also a book I haven’t been able to get my hands on Warrior Grandma, about Bahá’í Lakota educator Patricia Locke. If you’ve read it, please do tell us your thoughts!

 

ron's big mission Warrior Grandma: The Story of Patricia Locke - Beaston, Littlebrave

When is it?

  • Begins at sunset on the 13th day of the Bahá’í month of Jalál, and lasts 12 days
  • The start usually falls on April 20-21 on the Gregorian calendar.

Parenting is Praxis: Guided Discussion

  • Adults: Learn about gatekeeping in the publishing industry.
  • Discuss with kids:
    • What religions have we learned about in books and TV?
    • Which religious festivals have we studied and talked about?
    • Which religions are easy to learn about at our local library?
    • Which religions are harder to find books and shows about?
    • Who chooses the books in our library? And how?
      (Hint: most libraries won’t purchase books unless they’re published by the big 4 or reviewed by mainstream media outlets – and alllll these organizations are run by folks who hold privileged identities so…)
    • Why are books on some religions and festivals hard, or impossible, to find?
    • How [does /would] it make you feel if your local library had tons of books on dominant religions, didn’t have any books about the traditions that center your core cultural and spiritual values?

 

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1 comment

Adelaide Dupont March 29, 2023 - 1:35 AM
0

One person who introduced me into the deeper aspects of the Baha’i faith was Tasmanian author Ron Price.

His voluminous writings really got into the side of everything – including celebrations and commemorations like Ridvan.

And there was also a gentleman in and of the same faith called Mark Foster whose work I read at the beginning of 2008.

So if it isn’t a Kirkus or a Publishers’ Weekly covered-book the librarians don’t want to know about it.

Both Price and Foster are prolific writers and bloggers – Price on Scribd and Foster on Yahoo360.

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Raising Luminaries is founded & run by me, Ashia Ray – an Autistic, multiracial (Chinese/Irish) 2nd-generation settler raising two children alongside my partner on the homelands of the Wampanoag and Massachusett people. I support families and educators in raising the next generation of kind & courageous leaders, so we can all smash the kyriarchy together.

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