The festival of Ridvan

The Ridvan Festival commemorates the anniversary of the garden sojourn where Baha’u’llah declared His mission outside Baghdad during the 12 days before His banishment to Istanbul (then called Constantinople) in 1863. Baha’u’llah had been exiled to Baghdad 10 years earlier in 1853 by a Persian government that feared the rapid spread of His teachings and their progressive impact on society; and now, because His teachings continued to spread and threaten the clerics, Baha’u’llah was being sent into further exile as a result of pressure from that same government.

 Declaration of Baha’u’llah in the Ridvan Garden in 1863