Bell Craft and Video (Birth of Baha’u’llah)
Scroll to the end for a video of my father singing a special holiday song!
Do you know what we remember, on the twelfth day of November?
If you were a Baha’i child growing up in the US in the late 1970s, chances are you are already singing along. This was a popular Baha’i children’s song at a time when there were not very many of them, especially ones to celebrate specific Baha’i holidays.
We give thanks to the land of Ta [Teheran], for giving us Baha’u’llah!
Every year on November 12, Baha’is around the world celebrate the anniversary of the birth of their religion’s Prophet Founder, Baha’u’llah. One of my favorite childhood memories of this holiday is of our family all gathered around the piano singing this song while my mother played. Scroll to the end for a video of my father singing this song!
Ring the bells and sound the horn, This was the day when He was born! (Ding dong, ding dong!)
So this year to celebrate I decided to make bells with my little Monkey. Not only because of this song, but also because Baha’u’llah referred to Himself as the “Most Great Bell,” ringing out to announce the new dawn of a new age for all humanity.
I also thought bells would be an easy symbol for my toddler to grasp, just as the stars we made for the Declaration of the Bab holiday in the spring.
So I pulled out my handy craft foam and got to work. First I made a template out of cardboard (does anyone else have a stash of empty cereals boxes sitting around for craft projects??) and used it to trace a dozen bells out of the craft foam.
Once they were cut out and ready to go, my little Monkey and I sat down to decorate. Suppressing my natural aversion to mess, I let him go crazy with the glitter glue. After all, if you aren’t festive and sparkly on a holiday, then when are you?
It was actually much less messy than I had anticipated. The main issue was that our aesthetics were very different. Namely, his consisted of wanting to squeeze all the glitter glue out in big piles, which I was sure would never dry. I did persuade him to then create designs out of these glops of glitter glue, so in the end we only ended up with one blotch that will be permanently wet.
Nevertheless, we were both pleased with the results. You’ll never guess which of us decorated which!
After they were (almost) all dry, I enlisted my husband’s help in stringing them up over our mantel, using some royal blue embroidery thread. My very handy husband reworked one of our corncob holders in order to make holes small enough for the thread.
I purposely hung the bells up out of my little Monkey’s reach, in the hopes that the bells will last at least until the holiday on November 12th. But I also saved out two just for him, which I taped to the wall above his table and which he is free to touch and play with as much as he wants. (And he has!)
Since the time this post originally ran, we have received several photos from other families who made the bells to celebrate the holiday:
The Moore family of Sacramento, California made this lovely set of bells…
…while these beautiful bells come to us from Kate and Claudia of Brisbane, Australia!
Skyla of At Home with Momma Skyla writes that her family not only made the bells and learned the song, they also added instruments and sang at their community’s celebration!
Katie of ¡viva la evolución de la familia! also learned the song with her kids to share with other families for the holy day: “We had a wide range of ages with the three kids between 21 months and 7 years. So the older one told a little bit about Bahá’u’lláh to the younger ones. He also helped trace and cut out the bells too. We decided that next year we’d focus on doing horns!” Love that idea!
Thanks to everyone for sharing!
And now for the video! Nothing says love like agreeing to sing a song on video for your daughter’s blog (or agreeing to tape your husband singing the video). Many, many thanks to my dad for singing and my mom for doing the video! I know you will all enjoy this as much as I do! So without further ado, here is my father singing my childhood favorite for the holiday, “Do You Know What We Remember…?”
For more background on this holiday, you can read our recent article on Making Multicultural Music.
-33 Comments-
Your father sure does love you! I’m really enjoying learning more about the Baha’i traditions through your blog and I love your bell craft!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. And yes, posting a video online of yourself singing is true love! 😉
Thanks for sharing, I’ve been a Baha’i for 7 years but this is my first time hearing this song. Do you know if there’s a mp3/recording of it anywhere?
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find anything online, which is one of the reasons I asked my dad to make a video. Will let you know if I find anything! The song is originally from an old songbook called I believe “The Singing Wind,” but I don’t think it is in print anymore.
The song came from the book “Sing A New Song-Baha’i Songs for Children” published in 1968 by the NSA of the Bahai’s of the USA. Not sure if there are any recordings.
Thank you for the detailed information! This is great. I had it mixed up with another old songbook.
wow! some interesting facts i didn’t know! what a great way to teach children about culture. thanks so much for linking this up to tip-toe thru tuesday!
Thank you! We had a lot of fun with it!
Love the garland. I have never heard of the holiday before! Great to learn about it with a very nice song. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
[…] the house (click here to find out about the lovely bell craft pictured above and to learn a related song about the Holy […]
Thanks for the great ideas Leanna! Linked here http://www.enablemetogrow.com/2012/11/01/sharing-bahaullahs-birthday/
Wonderful! Thank you!
[…] This story first appeared on All Done Monkey. […]
Love, love, love this! We’ve learned the song, made the bells, and added instruments to perform this for our local observance. Thanks so much to your entire family for sharing this lovely idea! You may have sparked a world wide family tradition here!
Oh Skyla, this makes me so happy! I am so glad you enjoyed the craft, and my parents will be THRILLED to hear that you all have not only learned the song (with instruments!) but will be performing it at your local observance! Let us know how it goes!
I love the song your father sang! very sweet. never heard before!
Learned the song. we’ll be singing itvwithbsome families gathered at our house for the holy day tomorrow. Thanks for resurrecting it!
Oh, my folks will be so happy to hear it! If you have any photos you would be comfortable with me sharing, I would love to include them in the post!
[…] little Monkey and I celebrated the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh recently with a bell craft and […]
The bells are lovely! Prior to becoming acquainted with you, I knew embarrassingly little about the Baha’i faith. I’m really enjoying the opportunity to learn as you share how you’re celebrating important holidays with your monkey. I love how mindful you are about sharing your faith and values, while making it a whole lot of fun for him, too 🙂
Oh, thank you – what a sweet comment! I certainly hope to make it something joyful for him. Glad you’re enjoying it!
I have looked at this post at least 10 times and I can’t believe I haven’t commented! Love it. And I love the video – thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you, Varya!
[…] Teach my son that Christmas is one celebration, and we also have others, such as the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh and […]
I just saw this post – it’s a wonderful craft to go with the song! I’d taught my daughter that song when she was 2.5 and love how she still says “rember” instead of remember now at 4 🙂 it was always a favourite song of mine… I’m definitely going to “share” it!
Thank you so much! This song was definitely a favorite tradition for my family, and it’s fun to pass it on to my son now. I’m looking forward to hanging up our bell streamers again soon! Aww, love those cute pronunciations, so sweet!
[…] year, we added to it by following the suggestion from the following blog entry at All done Monkey – making the bell streamer. So when friends came over we sang the song to remind us what it was […]
[…] with these ideals of unity and oneness, which I am trying to pass on to my sons. I like to do crafts to go with our holidays, so this year, as our family prepares to celebrate the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh, I decided to […]
Your blog is just lovely. I’ve connected with Baha’i a mere 6 days ago for the first time and am so enjoying everything that I can learn about this beautiful community. I am especially happy to have found you. Your blog is so lovely. I’m wondering, is there a special greeting the Baha’i offer each other on the 12th of November?
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Thank you, Helena! No, there is no special greeting for this holy day, although I often just say something simple like, “Happy holy day!” 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to connecting with you!
[…] she celebrated the day with her young family a few years ago. For more ideas, you can also see how we celebrated last year and follow our Bahá’í Parenting board on […]
[…] of my favorite crafts that I have done with Monkey was the bell craft we did several years ago for the Bahá’í holy day Birth of Bahá’u’lláh. It […]