Gold Coast Baha’is will mark the Baha’i New Year on March 20 with a musical celebration involving professional entertainers from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
The performers will include Chinese, Colombian, Indian, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander groups as well a professional pop singer.
A disc jockey will provide music for dancing, and everyone present will join together in a buffet dinner.
The event in the Gold Coast International Hotel will be one of many multicultural celebrations held in Baha’i communities throughout Australia and the world.
The Baha’i New Year festival known as Naw Ruz (literally “New Day”) is held on the spring equinox, March 21, but the celebrations begin the evening before because the Baha’i day begins at sunset.
One of the organisers of the Gold Coast event, Sally Mollaian, said more than 350 people will attend, many of them guests of the local Baha’is.
“I am sure that the event will be a great success and contribute to harmony on the Gold Coast,” Ms Mollaian said.
A Baha’i speaker will provide for guests a brief introduction to the Baha’i Faith and also explain to them the meaning of Naw Ruz, she said.
The Naw Ruz festival comes at the end of a 19-day fast in which adult Baha’is abstain from food and drink between sunrise and sunset as a reminder of the need for individuals to be detached from their material desires.
Naw Ruz is the first day of the first of 19 months in the Baha’i calendar. The ancient Persian Naw Ruz festival occurs on the same day.