Established in 1950 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States, World Religion Day has been increasinghly taken up in other countries - at first by national and local Bahá'í communities in different parts of the world, although it has also become an event widely recognised and eagerly celebrated by people of other faiths too.
In the US, 16 January is now regularly observed as Religious Freedom Day, officially proclaimed each year by an annual statement by the President of the United States. Religious Freedom Day was enacted by President George H. W. Bush in 1993. I can't say whether it's more than just a happy accident that these two dates are observed so close together, but this year it will have made for a weekend in which religion will, hopefully, have been seen in a positive light. And, hopefully, a weekend in which religion itself will have been able to illumine minds and hearts with its own positive light.
While World Religion Day doesn't form part of the calendar observed by the Bahá'í community, it has become a fairly regular part of its year, and is always held on the third Sunday in January. Its purpose is to bring together people of various faith communities, to celebrate the unifying power of religion, to promote inter faith understanding and to encourage religious leaders and adherents to acknowledge the similarities between their faiths and work together for the common good.
Illustrating the universal appeal and widespread celebration of this annual event, the Republic of Congo became the second country to issue a postage stamp for World Religion Day in 2007 (Singapore had done the same thing in 1995). The stamp from the Congo is shown at the top of this blog entry.
A comprehensive and interactive website has been created for World Religion Day, with information about the event’s history, different world religions, the golden rule, videos, as well as past and current World Religion Day event listings around the world.
An interesting post. Thanks George.
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