Carbon footprints to Edinburgh

Princes Street, Edinburgh

I flew to Edinburgh yesterday for a meeting at the new Baha’i Centre on Albany Street - and returned the same evening. The centre is a lovely Georgian house which needs a great deal of internal refurbishment before it can be suitable as a place to receive distinguished visitors. I was part of a group meeting with the architects who will be drawing up the plans for the refurbishment.

There’s a curiosity for Baha’is in a window on the top floor at the back.

Unfortunately my picture only faintly shows the letters and words scratched into the pane of glass. The inscription reads:

JRN
2nd May
1863

I’ve no idea who JRN was, but 1863 was the year in which Baha’u'llah declared His mission, and 2nd May was the last day of a 12-day period Baha’u'llah and His companions spent camping in a garden on the banks of the River Tigris just before leaving Baghdad for Istanbul. Baha’is worldwide now celebrate this period (21st April to 2 May) as the Festival of Ridvan, the greatest festival of the Baha’i year, marking the exact days on which Baha’u'llah declared His mission.

It’s a curious coincidence that JRN should have scratched his or her initials in the window of the house that was to eventually become Edinburgh’s Baha’i Centre on that very day in 1863.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Baha’u'llah, Bahaullah, Ridvan, Baghdad, Tigris, Edinburgh

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