The Baha'i Fast... starts sunrise March 2nd & ends March 20th

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Fasting of some kind or other exists in many religions … In the Baha'i Faith Fasting occurs during the month of 'Ala (Loftiness) which is the last month in the Baha'i Calendar. Each Baha'i month is nineteen days in length and there are nineteen months.. all are named after an attribute of God as are the days of the week. The Baha'i calendar is solar and begins with "Naw-Ruz" the ancient Persian New Year. The meaning of "Naw-Ruz" is New Day and is the Vernal Equinox when the daylight hours are the same as the night time.

The Fast begins at sunrise and ends at sunset each day for nineteen days. The Fast involves abstaining from food and drink during the daylight hours. You must be at least fifteen years of age to Fast. If you're over seventy years Fasting is not required. There are exemptions for those who are ill... those who have to work in hard labour. Travellers are also exempt. Pregnant women are exempt as are those who nurse their young.

There are no "make ups" for Fasting... If you cannot Fast you don't have to Fast later...

I will share some references:

"These are, O my God, the days whereon Thou didst enjoin Thy servants to observe the fast. With it Thou didst adorn the preamble of the Book of Thy Laws revealed unto Thy creatures, and didst deck forth the Repositories of Thy commandments in the sight of all who are in Thy heaven and all who are on Thy earth. Thou hast endowed every hour of these days with a special virtue, inscrutable to all except Thee, Whose knowledge embraceth all created things. Thou hast, also, assigned unto every soul a portion of this virtue in accordance with the Tablet of Thy decree and the Scriptures of Thine irrevocable judgment. Every leaf of these Books and Scriptures Thou hast, moreover, allotted to each one of the peoples and kindreds of the earth."

~ Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 142


"Besides all this, prayer and fasting is the cause of awakening and mindfulness and conducive to protection and preservation from tests...."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith - , p. 368

 

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During the Fast we will naturally encounter hunger and can identify with those who have Fasting as a daily experience:

The following is a personal reflection by Sonjel Vreeland on one of the benefits of Fasting:

Empathy for the Poor and Needy
In the compilation there’s a short quotation from Baha’u’llah which says:

"All praise be unto God, Who hath revealed the law of obligatory prayer as a reminder to His servants, and enjoined on them the Fast that those possessed of means may become apprised of the woes and sufferings of the destitute."

On a logical level, this makes complete sense: if we experience hunger, we will better understand those who are hungry. I can’t think of any other Baha’i law or teaching that encourages us to feel, and to empathize, so deeply with the sufferings of another.

When I talk to my six year old about helping those in need, and assisting families who don’t have enough food, I can see that she struggles to understand. It is beyond the realm of her imagination that anyone she goes to school with could be chronically hungry. And even though I know, rationally, that there are people who don’t have enough to eat, my understanding is heightened and elevated when I experience hunger. In The Hidden Words, Baha’u’llah counsels us:

"O children of dust! Tell the rich of the midnight sighing of the poor, lest heedlessness lead them into the path of destruction, and deprive them of the Tree of Wealth. To give and to be generous are attributes of Mine; well is it with him that adorneth himself with My virtues."

Four Spiritual Benefits of Fasting: A Personal Reflection - Baha'i Blog

 

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Today I came across a brief essay by David Langness on some of the possible benefits of "intermittent fasting":

"So while the Baha’i Fast has a primarily spiritual purpose—which we’ll discuss in subsequent essays in this series—it also has powerfully beneficial physical ones, too. Medical science has shown that cyclical intermittent fasting:

• decreases blood sugar levels and insulin resistance,
• fights inflammation,
• enhances heart health by reducing cholesterol and triglycerides,
• boosts brain function and prevents neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s,
• increases metabolism and helps control weight,
• increases levels of human growth hormone (HGH), a key factor in growth and muscle strength,
• aids in cancer prevention, and
• delays aging and extends longevity.

Read the full article here:

When and Why Did Humans Start Fasting?

From a Health site online are similar findings:

10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

 

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Baha’is Fast once a year for nineteen days in the last month of the Baha’i calendar year. The Fast consists of abstaining from liquids and solid food from sunrise to sunset. The first three days or so are more difficult as your body adjusts to Fasting.

For me the discipline of the Fast is important as well as recognizing in Fasting that there are people in the world who are going without food or water. We occasionally engage in service projects prior to the Fast.

Fasting, said ‘Abdu’l-Bahá “is the cause of awakening man. The heart becomes tender and the spirituality of man increases. This is produced by the fact that man’s thoughts will be confined to the commemoration of God, and through this awakening and stimulation surely ideal advancements follow”.1

What Bahá’ís Believe

There are exemptions for the Fast: If you are under fifteen or over seventy years of age you do not have to Fast. If you are ill you do not have to Fast. Pregnant women and nursing mothers are exempt. If you engage in heavy labour you do not have to Fast.

At the end of the day (Sunset) we offer this prayer:

Praise be unto Thee, O Lord my God! We have observed the Fast in conformity with Thy bidding and break it now through Thy love and Thy good-pleasure. Deign to accept, O my God, the deeds that we have performed in Thy path wholly for the sake of Thy beauty with our faces set towards Thy Cause, free from aught else but Thee. Bestow, then, Thy forgiveness upon us, upon our forefathers, and upon all such as have believed in Thee and in Thy mighty signs in this most great, this most glorious Revelation. Potent art Thou to do what Thou choosest. Thou art, verily, the Most Exalted, the Almighty, the Unconstrained.

~~~ Bahá’u’lláh

Praise be unto Thee, O Lord my God! We have observed...

 

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"… this physical fast is a symbol of the spiritual fast. This Fast leadeth to the cleansing of the soul from all selfish desires, the acquisition of spiritual attributes, attraction to the breezes of the All-Merciful, and enkindlement with the fire of divine love."

– Baha’u’llah, quoted in The Importance of Obligatory Prayer and Fasting, # XXVI.