Note 26

26. and at its close have designated for you &Naw-Ruz as a feast # 16

The &Bab introduced a new calendar, known now as the &Badi' or &Baha'i calendar (see notes 27 and 147). According to this calendar, a day is the period from sunset to sunset. In the &Bayan, the &Bab ordained the month of &Ala' to be the month of fasting, decreed that the day of &Naw-Ruz should mark the termination of that period, and designated &Naw-Ruz as the Day of God. &Baha'u'llah confirms the &Badi' calendar wherein &Naw-Ruz is designated as a feast. &Naw-Ruz is the first day of the new year. It coincides with the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, which usually occurs on 21 March. &Baha'u'llah explains that this feast day is to be celebrated on whatever day the sun passes into the constellation of Aries (i.e. the vernal equinox), even should this occur one minute before sunset (Q and A 35). Hence &Naw-Ruz could fall on 20, 21, or 22 March, depending on the time of the equinox. &Baha'u'llah has left the details of many laws to be filled +P178 in by the Universal House of Justice. Among these are a number of matters affecting the &Baha'i calendar. The Guardian has stated that the implementation, worldwide, of the law concerning the timing of &Naw-Ruz will require the choice of a particular spot on earth which will serve as the standard for the fixing of the time of the spring equinox. He also indicated that the choice of this spot has been left to the decision of the Universal House of Justice.