Erica and I took Ethan and Emily to the Ted Cardell Memorial Picnic today. The picnics, organized by Wendi and Moojan Momen in their Bedfordshire garden are an annual event in memorial of the late Ted Cardell, farmer and staunch British Baha’i, who used to invite Baha’is and their friends to picnics on his farm in Huntingdonshire in summers long gone.

The kids had a whale of a time, playing with the other children at the picnic, bouncing on the mini-bouncing castle, and generally getting overheated on this very close and hot day. There was occasional wailing and gnashing of teeth, but on the whole they got on very well and enjoyed themselves.

Meantime the adults sat in small groups under trees and in the marquee, caught up with their news and chatted about this and that.

Tom and Vicky also came to the picnic and came home with us for supper, before going on to a party in Watford.

Technorati Tags: picnic, Momen, Bedfordshire, Baha’i, Huntingdonshire

Sunday 6 August, 2006 The heat is back. We’re taking Ethan and Emily to Wendi and Moojan Momen’s Ted Cardell Memorial Picnic today. No doubt we’ll overheat - as we did yesterday.

This is a nice piece about how the diverse population in Haifa continues to live peaceably together, despite the present conflict, something that Baha’is across the world welcome.

Against a backdrop of current war which has seen over 100 missiles land in Haifa over the last weeks, the social fabric of Israel’s third largest city with a proud history of coexistence between its Jewish and Arab residents, is alive and well.

There are good examples in the story of the peaceful coexistence in Haifa of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The brother-in-law of Fady Najar, a Israeli Arab, who has a restaurant below the Baha’i Gardens (I assume on Ben Gurion Avenue), was injured on the day the first missiles fell on Haifa on 13 July. Fady, whose family originates from Lebanon, is keeping his restaurant open, despite the missiles and despite the fewness of customers.

Life has to continue, he said. Among the many things that make him sad these days is the idea that the violence has marred the image of the city he grew up in.

“I wanted it to be on the map as a site of peace,” said Najar.

And then there’s this:

Behind him [Fady Najar] as he spoke, the lights from the Baha’i Gardens twinkled in the night. The multi-terraced gardens that wind their way up the hill top around a golden dome Temple is the second holiest site for the Baha’i religion founded in the 19th century has its roots in Islam even thought the two are now separate religions. Most of its five million members live in India, Iran and the US, even though some of its founding members lived here in the last century.

The Haifa shrine built in 1953, houses the tomb of one of the religion’s founders Siyyad Ali Mhammed, otherwise known as the Bab. He was executed in 1850 and his remains were brought to Haifa in 1909.

Its deputy secretary general Murray Smith of New Zealand who has lived in Haifa for the last 12 years said that on an average month some 40,000 to 60,000 people visit the gardens. But in light of the attacks the site is closed. Still in an effort to boost morale in the city, Smith said he has left the lights on at night beyond the normal number of hours.

“It’s a nice symbol for world peace,” said Smith who added that such feeling is one of the central tenents of the Baha’i faith. He noted that the slope of the mountain faces Lebanon, “so that makes it a particularly significant symbol of hope for everyone around us.”

On a personal note: my grandson, Ethan, was born in the Rambam medical facility in Haifa six years ago while his parents were serving at the Baha’i World Centre. Yesterday we were listening to the news on the car radio about the war in Israel and Lebanon. Ethan said, “That’s about where I was born, isn’t it?”

Technorati Tags: Haifa, Baha’i, Israel, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Arab, Lebanon, Islam