BLENDED PERPETUAL BADÍ’ AND GREGORIAN CALENDARS
Created | Updated Jan 27, 2014
BLENDED PERPETUAL BADÍ’ AND GREGORIAN CALENDARS
A Note on Displaying Diacritical Marks
Before delving into the perpetual-calendars spreadsheet, which is the focus of this paper, note that any Internet user may download and install 2 fonts, both of which correctly display diacritics for the transliteration of Arabic and Persian words. Since many other transliteration schemes also use such diacritical marks, these TrueType fonts may come in handy for those web pages as well.
To get these TrueType fonts, follow the hyperlink. Install the TrueType fonts by running the malware-free files you download. Use of either of these fonts will correctly display all diacritics in the perpetual-calendars spreadsheet associated with this paper, as well as in this paper itself.
Purpose of the Blended, Perpetual-Calendar Spreadsheet
This paper accompanies this hyperlinked, Microsoft® Office 2013, Excel spreadsheet.xlsx (press the <Esc> key to get out of the preview.), containing a blended perpetual calendar for the Badí' and Gregorian Calendars. This paper is also available as a Microsoft® Office 2013 Word file.docx, and as an Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 Writer file.odt. The spreadsheet is also available as an Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 Calc file.ods.
Near the bottom of the following hyperlink is a brief explanation of the Badí' Calendar:
Bahá'í Faith, The: 1844-1950:Information Statistical and Comparative
And here is a fuller explanation for those readers so inclined:
http://bahai-library.com/bw18_calendar_festivals_dates#2
The Badí' Calendar is the Calendar used by the members of the Bahá’í Faith. At this time, the Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world. Until now there was no way to have an automatically updated, perpetual calendar, which cross-references Bahá’í Era and Common Era dates, especially with such complete detail.
The Badí' Calendar has 19 months of 19 days each. Nineteen squared is 361, which is the largest perfect square less than or equal to the 365 days in a solar year. The 19 days have the same names as the 19 months. The number 19 also has significant meaning in 2 world religions: Islam and the Bahá’í Faith. The Badí' year is rounded out with 4, or 5 in leap years, Intercalary Days.
The spreadsheet contains the abbreviations “CE” and “BE”. CE means "Common Era" (also "Christian Era" and "Current Era"). CE is now the more politically correct way to denote A.D., or Anno Domini.
BE means Bahá’í Era, which begins with sunset, 20 March 1844 CE, or 1 Bahá 1 BE.
Using the Spreadsheet
The rest of this paper will make sense only if the reader is also looking at the spreadsheet.
The Badí' Calendar is intended to be truly solar, which means that Naw-Rúz– the Badí' New Year--will, at the eventual ruling of the Universal House of Justice, be on the day that is really the spring equinox. The equinox can wobble, from year to year, from 19 March to 21 March CE, or 18 'Alá' to 1 Bahá BE.
On the eventual day that the Universal House of Justice makes the Badí' Calendar conform to actual solar events, this spreadsheet will become inaccurate and useless. Until then, this perpetual-calendar blend of the Badí' and Gregorian Calendars should remain accurate and complete.
Bahá’ís state that the Badí' Calendar is meant to be universal. Included with that idea is the assumption that the world will eventually use the Arabic names delineated in the Badí' Calendar. Until such an eventuality, English translations are provided in the spreadsheet as a convenience.
This spreadsheet works off Gregorian dates. However, the Badí' day begins and ends at sunset, not at midnight. Consequently, for approximately 5 hours on the evening of Naw-Rúz (20 March and 1 Bahá)--from sunset until midnight—this spreadsheet will show the Badí' year as 1 year behind what it actually is. Then at midnight (21 March and 1 Bahá) the spreadsheet will become correct again.
The spreadsheet works off Gregorian dates because Excel has built-in functions to work with Gregorian dates and times. No one has yet devised Excel functions for working with Badí' dates.
Hence, the Badí' months shown are always those associated with the relevant Gregorian dates. Therefore, after Naw-Rúz is reached in any one year, the Badí' months corresponding to the Gregorian months January thru March remain as they were. They do not roll forward to become the Badí' months of the next Badí' year.
Specific times noted in this spreadsheet assume the United States' daylight-savings-time scheme is in effect. There are various daylight savings schemes all over the world. The author arbitrarily chose the 1 of his native country to use. Internet search engines such as Yahoo, Google or Bing (YahGooBi) will find websites which can help people of different schemes convert to their times.
Color coding in the spreadsheet:
A researcher may use the "goto" or "navigator" key <F5> to jump to the beginning of any Gregorian or any Badí' month, or to any Badí' Holy Day.
Since 31 December is also the 1st day of Sharaf, using "<F5> Sharaf" is a convenient way to jump to the bottom of the calendar.
The numbering of the days of the week arbitrarily reckons the Sabbath as the 7th and last day. The Gregorian Sabbath is Sunday and the Badí' Sabbath is Istiqlál (Friday). Both are numbered the 7th day of the week.
No one need enter any data into this calendar, except event data into any or all of the 3 event columns. These are the right-most 3 columns, J thru L. All calculations (specified below) remain automatic and valid, without maintenance, and across time.
Badí' Holy Days are entered into the event columns already. Also already entered are certain internationally observed days.
Cell I1 contains a formula for automatically determining the current Gregorian year. However, if a researcher wishes to view any Gregorian year other than the current year, simply enter that year at the top of the spreadsheet into cell I1. The calendar works for any Gregorian year after 1899. Excel 2013 cannot work with dates before that time.
If a researcher wishes to see a particular Badí' year other than the current year, then that researcher still needs to enter manually the corresponding Gregorian year into cell I1. Do NOT enter a Badí’ year into cell K1. Use only cell I1 for manually entering Gregorian years after 1899.
Make sure not to save the spreadsheet with a manually entered year. If that mistake is made, simply enter this formula in cell I1, and re-save the spreadsheet:
=Year(D4)
. Should someone, in spite of these instructions, manually enter a Badí’ year in cell K1, then replace it with this formula,
=IF(TODAY()<DATE(I1,3,21),I1-1844,I1-1843)
, and then re-save the spreadsheet. For both of these corrections, a researcher may copy from this paper and paste the formulae into the spreadsheet.
By calculations above are meant, by spreadsheet column from left to right:
And by calculations are also meant, all the data in the spreadsheet’s titles:
8. Gregorian year;
9. Badí' year;
10. the Badí' Váhid [in English, Unity] (also 1 - 19);
11. the year of the Váhid (also 1 – 19); its Arabic name (Alif – Váhid) and (English translation);
12. the Kull-i-Shay';
And, finally, by calculations is also meant, in leap years:
13. The automatic inclusion, in leap years, of:
a) February 29th CE; and
b) the fifth day of Ayyám-i-Há BE.
Years evenly divisible by 100, but not 400, such as 2100 CE, (256 BE), are not leap years.
Here is an example of Gregorian and Badí' nomenclature for a randomly chosen day.
If today were, in words:
In Gregorian:
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 CE, 1st century of the 3rd millennium
Then in Names (or words) in the Badí Calendar, it would be:
In Arabic Badí':
Fi?ál, Mulk, Masá'il, Badí', 169 BE, Váhid 9, Kull-i-Shay' 1.
Or, in numbers:
In Gregorian:
The 2nd day of the week; the 2nd month; the 21st day of that month; the year 2012 CE; the 1st century of the 3rd millennium.
In Badí':
The 4th day of the week; the 18th month; the 15th day of that month; the year 169 BE; the 16th year of the 9th Váhid of the 1st Kull-i-Shay'.
Kull-i-Shay' in English means "all things". It is 19 Váhids. One Váhid is 19 years. Hence, a Kull-i-Shay' represents an era of 361 solar years.
From the above example, a researcher can see that The Badí’ Calendar can be referenced either in poetic words, primarily using what Bahá’ís call “attributes of God”, or in numbers.
To display or print only the current month's information, with all the spreadsheet titles included at the top of a printed sheet, set row heights before the current month equal to zero.
To re-display or print rows as they were originally, re-set row heights equal to 2.00".
Use the Excel zoom bar to see more or less of the spreadsheet at a time. It’s saved setting is 118%. Save it with a zoom setting appropriate for the researcher’s monitor.
Every time a researcher closes the spreadsheet, Excel will warn that changes have been made, and ask if the file should be saved. Unless a researcher has deliberately made changes to keep, the response is always “no”. There is no way to use the “Today()” function in Excel without this problem occurring. Should a researcher have made no changes to the spreadsheet, no harm will arise in responding “yes”. A “no” response is generally safer, because no unintended changes will be saved.
Notes
The Holy Days in this Badí’ Calendar vary somewhat from the understanding which many Bahá’ís’ have of their Holy Days. Hence, some explanation should be given for the divergence. Most Bahá’ís believe they have 11 Holy Days, and not the 21 included in this spreadsheet. They also believe there are reasons why the 1st, 9th and 12th Days of Ri?ván are special over the other Days of Ri?ván. Some believe Bahá’u’lláh Himself designates them as special in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.
However, in the above explanation of the Badí’ Calendar (either or both of the hyperlinks at the beginning of this paper), Shoghi Effendi, whom Bahá’ís regard as infallible, lists both every day of Ri?ván, and `Abdu'l-Bahá's Birthday on May 23, as Holy Days.[i] He said elsewhere, however, that it is impractical to suspend work and/or school for all 12 Days of Ri?ván.[ii]
He also indicates in that same letter that there is nothing particularly special about the 1st, 9th and 12th Days. No event happened on any of these Days to make them especial Holy Days. The explanations which some Bahá’ís give as to why these Days are Holy Days on which work must be suspended are mere apocrypha.
Nor does the author find reference to these 3 Days in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. However, Bahá’u’lláh did specify these 3 Days as Days to suspend work in Questions and Answers, which is 1 of the supplements to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. He does not specify therein why He chose these Days.
Shoghi Effendi, in the hyperlinks referenced above, also translates Badí', not as "Wonderful" but as "Beginning". Both translations are valid. In reference to the Calendar, apparently “Beginning” is the correct translation.
For further enjoyment, the following hyperlink yields a webpage of "This day in Bahá'í history."
Badí' Calendar: This day in Bahá'í history
[i]Shoghi Effendi writes: “`Abdu'l-Bahá, in one of His Tablets addressed to a believer of Nayríz, Persia, has written the following: ‘Nine days in the year have been appointed on which work is forbidden. Some of these days have been specifically mentioned in the Book. The rest follow as corollaries to the text. Work on the Day of the Covenant (Fête Day of `Abdu'l-Bahá), however, is not prohibited. Celebration of that day is left to the discretion of the friends. Its observance is not obligatory. The days pertaining to the Abhá Beauty (Bahá`u'lláh) and the Primal Point (the Báb), that is to say these nine days, are the only ones on which work connected with trade, commerce, industry and agriculture is not allowed. In like manner, work connected with any form of employment, whether governmental or otherwise, should be suspended.’
“As a corollary of this Tablet it follows that the anniversaries of the birth and ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá are not to be regarded as days on which work is prohibited. The celebration of these two days, however, is obligatory.”
Thus, it seems that Bahá’ís are supposed to observe `Abdu'l-Bahá’s Birthday after all. This explanation by Shoghi Effendi has been repeated in every volume of Bahá’í World since the first volume was published in 1925 CE, or 82 BE.
[ii] As regards various matters you raised in your letters, the reason we commemorate the 1st, 9th and 12th days of Ridvan as Holidays (Holy Days) is because one is the first day, one is the last day, and the third one is the ninth day, which of course is associated with the number 9. All 12 days could not be holidays, therefore these three were chosen.
Letter written on behalf of the Guardian, dated June 8, 1952, to an individual believer
A Note on Displaying Diacritical Marks
Before delving into the perpetual-calendars spreadsheet, which is the focus of this paper, note that any Internet user may download and install 2 fonts, both of which correctly display diacritics for the transliteration of Arabic and Persian words. Since many other transliteration schemes also use such diacritical marks, these TrueType fonts may come in handy for those web pages as well.
To get these TrueType fonts, follow the hyperlink. Install the TrueType fonts by running the malware-free files you download. Use of either of these fonts will correctly display all diacritics in the perpetual-calendars spreadsheet associated with this paper, as well as in this paper itself.
Purpose of the Blended, Perpetual-Calendar Spreadsheet
This paper accompanies this hyperlinked, Microsoft® Office 2013, Excel spreadsheet.xlsx (press the <Esc> key to get out of the preview.), containing a blended perpetual calendar for the Badí' and Gregorian Calendars. This paper is also available as a Microsoft® Office 2013 Word file.docx, and as an Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 Writer file.odt. The spreadsheet is also available as an Apache OpenOffice 4.0.1 Calc file.ods.
Near the bottom of the following hyperlink is a brief explanation of the Badí' Calendar:
Bahá'í Faith, The: 1844-1950:Information Statistical and Comparative
And here is a fuller explanation for those readers so inclined:
http://bahai-library.com/bw18_calendar_festivals_dates#2
The Badí' Calendar is the Calendar used by the members of the Bahá’í Faith. At this time, the Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used Calendar in the world. Until now there was no way to have an automatically updated, perpetual calendar, which cross-references Bahá’í Era and Common Era dates, especially with such complete detail.
The Badí' Calendar has 19 months of 19 days each. Nineteen squared is 361, which is the largest perfect square less than or equal to the 365 days in a solar year. The 19 days have the same names as the 19 months. The number 19 also has significant meaning in 2 world religions: Islam and the Bahá’í Faith. The Badí' year is rounded out with 4, or 5 in leap years, Intercalary Days.
The spreadsheet contains the abbreviations “CE” and “BE”. CE means "Common Era" (also "Christian Era" and "Current Era"). CE is now the more politically correct way to denote A.D., or Anno Domini.
BE means Bahá’í Era, which begins with sunset, 20 March 1844 CE, or 1 Bahá 1 BE.
Using the Spreadsheet
The rest of this paper will make sense only if the reader is also looking at the spreadsheet.
The Badí' Calendar is intended to be truly solar, which means that Naw-Rúz– the Badí' New Year--will, at the eventual ruling of the Universal House of Justice, be on the day that is really the spring equinox. The equinox can wobble, from year to year, from 19 March to 21 March CE, or 18 'Alá' to 1 Bahá BE.
On the eventual day that the Universal House of Justice makes the Badí' Calendar conform to actual solar events, this spreadsheet will become inaccurate and useless. Until then, this perpetual-calendar blend of the Badí' and Gregorian Calendars should remain accurate and complete.
Bahá’ís state that the Badí' Calendar is meant to be universal. Included with that idea is the assumption that the world will eventually use the Arabic names delineated in the Badí' Calendar. Until such an eventuality, English translations are provided in the spreadsheet as a convenience.
This spreadsheet works off Gregorian dates. However, the Badí' day begins and ends at sunset, not at midnight. Consequently, for approximately 5 hours on the evening of Naw-Rúz (20 March and 1 Bahá)--from sunset until midnight—this spreadsheet will show the Badí' year as 1 year behind what it actually is. Then at midnight (21 March and 1 Bahá) the spreadsheet will become correct again.
The spreadsheet works off Gregorian dates because Excel has built-in functions to work with Gregorian dates and times. No one has yet devised Excel functions for working with Badí' dates.
Hence, the Badí' months shown are always those associated with the relevant Gregorian dates. Therefore, after Naw-Rúz is reached in any one year, the Badí' months corresponding to the Gregorian months January thru March remain as they were. They do not roll forward to become the Badí' months of the next Badí' year.
Specific times noted in this spreadsheet assume the United States' daylight-savings-time scheme is in effect. There are various daylight savings schemes all over the world. The author arbitrarily chose the 1 of his native country to use. Internet search engines such as Yahoo, Google or Bing (YahGooBi) will find websites which can help people of different schemes convert to their times.
Color coding in the spreadsheet:
- Badí' months alternate in color from purple to red.
- The 9 Holy Days on which Bahá’ís must suspend work and school are green.
- The 11 Holy Days on which Bahá’ís need not suspend work and school are magenta.
- The Badí' month of the Fast (‘Alá') is bold black.
- Ayyám-i-Há is orange.
A researcher may use the "goto" or "navigator" key <F5> to jump to the beginning of any Gregorian or any Badí' month, or to any Badí' Holy Day.
Since 31 December is also the 1st day of Sharaf, using "<F5> Sharaf" is a convenient way to jump to the bottom of the calendar.
The numbering of the days of the week arbitrarily reckons the Sabbath as the 7th and last day. The Gregorian Sabbath is Sunday and the Badí' Sabbath is Istiqlál (Friday). Both are numbered the 7th day of the week.
No one need enter any data into this calendar, except event data into any or all of the 3 event columns. These are the right-most 3 columns, J thru L. All calculations (specified below) remain automatic and valid, without maintenance, and across time.
Badí' Holy Days are entered into the event columns already. Also already entered are certain internationally observed days.
Cell I1 contains a formula for automatically determining the current Gregorian year. However, if a researcher wishes to view any Gregorian year other than the current year, simply enter that year at the top of the spreadsheet into cell I1. The calendar works for any Gregorian year after 1899. Excel 2013 cannot work with dates before that time.
If a researcher wishes to see a particular Badí' year other than the current year, then that researcher still needs to enter manually the corresponding Gregorian year into cell I1. Do NOT enter a Badí’ year into cell K1. Use only cell I1 for manually entering Gregorian years after 1899.
Make sure not to save the spreadsheet with a manually entered year. If that mistake is made, simply enter this formula in cell I1, and re-save the spreadsheet:
=Year(D4)
. Should someone, in spite of these instructions, manually enter a Badí’ year in cell K1, then replace it with this formula,
=IF(TODAY()<DATE(I1,3,21),I1-1844,I1-1843)
, and then re-save the spreadsheet. For both of these corrections, a researcher may copy from this paper and paste the formulae into the spreadsheet.
By calculations above are meant, by spreadsheet column from left to right:
- Column A: Gregorian day (1 – 28, 29, 30 or 31), month (January – December) and year;
- Column B: day (1-19) of the Badí' month;
- Column C; that day’s Arabic name (Bahá - 'Alá');
- Column D: that day’s (English translation);
- Column E: Badí' month’s Arabic name (also Bahá - 'Alá') and number (also 1 – 19);
- Column F: that month’s (English translation);
- Column G: Gregorian weekday (Monday – Sunday) and number (1 -7) of the week;
- Column H: Badí' Arabic weekday (Jalál – Istiqlál) and number (1 – 7) of the week;
- Column I: that Arabic weekday‘s (English translation).
And by calculations are also meant, all the data in the spreadsheet’s titles:
8. Gregorian year;
9. Badí' year;
10. the Badí' Váhid [in English, Unity] (also 1 - 19);
11. the year of the Váhid (also 1 – 19); its Arabic name (Alif – Váhid) and (English translation);
12. the Kull-i-Shay';
And, finally, by calculations is also meant, in leap years:
13. The automatic inclusion, in leap years, of:
a) February 29th CE; and
b) the fifth day of Ayyám-i-Há BE.
Years evenly divisible by 100, but not 400, such as 2100 CE, (256 BE), are not leap years.
Here is an example of Gregorian and Badí' nomenclature for a randomly chosen day.
If today were, in words:
In Gregorian:
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2012 CE, 1st century of the 3rd millennium
Then in Names (or words) in the Badí Calendar, it would be:
In Arabic Badí':
Fi?ál, Mulk, Masá'il, Badí', 169 BE, Váhid 9, Kull-i-Shay' 1.
Or, in numbers:
In Gregorian:
The 2nd day of the week; the 2nd month; the 21st day of that month; the year 2012 CE; the 1st century of the 3rd millennium.
In Badí':
The 4th day of the week; the 18th month; the 15th day of that month; the year 169 BE; the 16th year of the 9th Váhid of the 1st Kull-i-Shay'.
Kull-i-Shay' in English means "all things". It is 19 Váhids. One Váhid is 19 years. Hence, a Kull-i-Shay' represents an era of 361 solar years.
From the above example, a researcher can see that The Badí’ Calendar can be referenced either in poetic words, primarily using what Bahá’ís call “attributes of God”, or in numbers.
To display or print only the current month's information, with all the spreadsheet titles included at the top of a printed sheet, set row heights before the current month equal to zero.
To re-display or print rows as they were originally, re-set row heights equal to 2.00".
Use the Excel zoom bar to see more or less of the spreadsheet at a time. It’s saved setting is 118%. Save it with a zoom setting appropriate for the researcher’s monitor.
Every time a researcher closes the spreadsheet, Excel will warn that changes have been made, and ask if the file should be saved. Unless a researcher has deliberately made changes to keep, the response is always “no”. There is no way to use the “Today()” function in Excel without this problem occurring. Should a researcher have made no changes to the spreadsheet, no harm will arise in responding “yes”. A “no” response is generally safer, because no unintended changes will be saved.
Notes
The Holy Days in this Badí’ Calendar vary somewhat from the understanding which many Bahá’ís’ have of their Holy Days. Hence, some explanation should be given for the divergence. Most Bahá’ís believe they have 11 Holy Days, and not the 21 included in this spreadsheet. They also believe there are reasons why the 1st, 9th and 12th Days of Ri?ván are special over the other Days of Ri?ván. Some believe Bahá’u’lláh Himself designates them as special in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas.
However, in the above explanation of the Badí’ Calendar (either or both of the hyperlinks at the beginning of this paper), Shoghi Effendi, whom Bahá’ís regard as infallible, lists both every day of Ri?ván, and `Abdu'l-Bahá's Birthday on May 23, as Holy Days.[i] He said elsewhere, however, that it is impractical to suspend work and/or school for all 12 Days of Ri?ván.[ii]
He also indicates in that same letter that there is nothing particularly special about the 1st, 9th and 12th Days. No event happened on any of these Days to make them especial Holy Days. The explanations which some Bahá’ís give as to why these Days are Holy Days on which work must be suspended are mere apocrypha.
Nor does the author find reference to these 3 Days in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. However, Bahá’u’lláh did specify these 3 Days as Days to suspend work in Questions and Answers, which is 1 of the supplements to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. He does not specify therein why He chose these Days.
Shoghi Effendi, in the hyperlinks referenced above, also translates Badí', not as "Wonderful" but as "Beginning". Both translations are valid. In reference to the Calendar, apparently “Beginning” is the correct translation.
For further enjoyment, the following hyperlink yields a webpage of "This day in Bahá'í history."
Badí' Calendar: This day in Bahá'í history
[i]Shoghi Effendi writes: “`Abdu'l-Bahá, in one of His Tablets addressed to a believer of Nayríz, Persia, has written the following: ‘Nine days in the year have been appointed on which work is forbidden. Some of these days have been specifically mentioned in the Book. The rest follow as corollaries to the text. Work on the Day of the Covenant (Fête Day of `Abdu'l-Bahá), however, is not prohibited. Celebration of that day is left to the discretion of the friends. Its observance is not obligatory. The days pertaining to the Abhá Beauty (Bahá`u'lláh) and the Primal Point (the Báb), that is to say these nine days, are the only ones on which work connected with trade, commerce, industry and agriculture is not allowed. In like manner, work connected with any form of employment, whether governmental or otherwise, should be suspended.’
“As a corollary of this Tablet it follows that the anniversaries of the birth and ascension of `Abdu'l-Bahá are not to be regarded as days on which work is prohibited. The celebration of these two days, however, is obligatory.”
Thus, it seems that Bahá’ís are supposed to observe `Abdu'l-Bahá’s Birthday after all. This explanation by Shoghi Effendi has been repeated in every volume of Bahá’í World since the first volume was published in 1925 CE, or 82 BE.
[ii] As regards various matters you raised in your letters, the reason we commemorate the 1st, 9th and 12th days of Ridvan as Holidays (Holy Days) is because one is the first day, one is the last day, and the third one is the ninth day, which of course is associated with the number 9. All 12 days could not be holidays, therefore these three were chosen.
Letter written on behalf of the Guardian, dated June 8, 1952, to an individual believer
