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This section discusses how the Badi calendar differs from the Baha'i calendar. |
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The Baha'i calendar, as it exists currently, is a modification by Baha'Ullah of the calendar created by the Bab, called the Badi, or most luminous, calendar. The Baha'i calendar is essentially the same as the Badi calendar, with two notable exceptions: |
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The position of the extra four days required to make a solar year was not specified in the Badi calendar, but was specifically clarified by Baha'Ullah. |
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The Badi calendar employs a nomenclature and a system for naming units above one year not normally used in the Baha'i calendar. |
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The additional set of higher time units follows along the general lines of the Maya calendar. In this system, years are viewed as occurring in 19-year cycles. Each year within a cycle is named. The use of the nomenclature and higher units seems not to have been encouraged by Baha'Ullah but were not explicitly rejected, either, so the system of naming years and the higher units and their nomenclature may also be said to belong to the Baha'i calendar. |
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Each 19-year cycle is called a Vahid (Table 9.30). The numerical value of the word Vahid is 19 in the abjad system, and Vahid (unity) is intended to be symbolic of the unity of God. The reader who has followed the various calendars through this book will note that this system of dividing years is reminiscent of the Metonic system for relating lunar and solar periods and superficially resembles the Islamic system of aggregating years, with which the Bab was undoubtedly familiar. Nevertheless, it seems to be based upon the abjad system of symbolic associations with numbers, rather than upon any calendric or astronomical considerations. |
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The 19-year cycles are also grouped into another higher unit, called the Kull-i-Shay, in which 19 Vahid cycles constitute one Kull-i-Shay. These cycles are not named. The numerical value of Kull-i-Shay is 361, which matches the number of years in one such unit (1919 = 361). Again, the choice of unit seems to be based upon the consideration of the symbolism of numbers, via the abjad system of assigning numerical values to letters. |
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This general idea superficially resembles the Maya technique for recording Long Count dates, in which vigesimal units were employed, but the Badi usage is not extended beyond two units. |
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By this Badi calendar system, to use an example from the Baha'i literature, the Gregorian date Monday, 21 April 1930 A.D., expressed in the Baha'i calendar as 13 Jalal 87 B.E., would be expressed in the Badi calendar as "the day of Kamal, the day of Qudrat, of the month of Jalal, of the year Bahhaj, of the fifth Vahid, of the first Kull-i-Shay." |
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