We have been in a mad scramble around here (I know - what's new?) and, like usual, I wanted to post about what we did for the Declaration of the Bab not only because it worked
so well, but because of how
simple it was to organize. Leading up to the day I had been reading the story of Mulla Husayn to the kids (the one found in The Three Crowns) but hadn't had a chance to plan anything special for the occasion. That night, as we were late finishing off the dinner dishes and the kids were all acting overtired and emotional I decided I wouldn't try to rush and race them to the community commemoration and that we would do something simple at home. But what?...
Because the evening is all about the Bab declaring that He is a Manifestation of God and is interwoven with Mulla Husayn's search to find Him that became the focus and inspiration. First we lit candles and said prayers. We talked more about the Bab's story after watching a couple of you tube presentations and then I brought them into the dining room and placed 18 jewel-like gemstones on the table. (I grabbed these from the beading box moments before. Any type of bead or shiny, special, object would work providing that you had one of the same type of thing but in a different physical shape - you'll see why in a second.) I asked the kids what they thought that these "jewels" represented. There were a couple of random guesses but once they worked out that there were 18 they quickly realized they represented The Letters of the Living (the first 18 individuals to recognize The Bab through their own personal searches). One jewel was shaped like a crystal while the rest were octagonal and I asked them who the crystal represented. They immediately said Tahirih (the only woman and the only one to never meet the Bab face to face - she recognized Him in a dream.) We talked about how the other jewels were all the same shape (all men) and how they were different colors. We talked about how even though they were all special gems that they had different capacities and different destinies, different roles to play in the unfoldment of Babi history. I asked each of the children to choose one gemstone, which they then gave back to me. I told them that I was going to put a small lamp somewhere in the house and place their gemstones around it. Like the letters of the Living they were going to have to search for this lamp. Once they found it they could retrieve their gemstone but they were not to tell anyone what they had found. Like Mulla Husayn they would be bound to secrecy. Each of them would have to find the lamp (The Bab) for themselves. They would have to follow their hearts, spread out and search.
I "hid" the lamp in plain sight and then turned out all the lights to represent the darkness of that time. I told the children that The Bab too was hidden in plain sight. He was there all the time but it was the superstitions of the people and the darkness of the age that hid Him from view. The older kids each took a candle from the prayer table to help them search. Maryam got a flashlight. Their light represented their faith and their belief in the Promised One and it was their light that would lead them to The Bab (the lamp). Are you with me?
I hovered in the shadows while the children searched. After about 5 minutes Anisa found it. She was so excited that she called out: "I found it!" as she grabbed her gemstone. At this point I intervened, collected her gemstone and hid the lamp and stones again. I'm mean like that. It was actually great that this happened because it gave us the opportunity to talk about how wonderful it feels to find something, especially something that you are really searching for, that you want with all your heart and that you know others are searching for too. As well as how hard it would be to keep it a secret. Anisa, especially, really appreciated how difficult keeping the Bab's identity a secret would have been for Mulla Husayn.
As it happened, after another five minutes she was the first to find it again. While she was pleased as punch about that little fact she did a wonderful job of keeping the secret. Bayan and Ruhi kept searching over the same areas convinced that the Lamp was somewhere there. I reminded them repeatedly that Mulla Husayn (and everyone else for that matter) was told to leave his home and search far and wide aka: expand your search. Bayan was the next to find the lamp and Ruhi was the last. Something that she was very disappointed about because she was the oldest. Again this provided great opportunities for discussion. We talked about Quddus (who was the last individual to recognize the Bab) and how his name, out of the 18 Letters of the Living, is one of the most recognized. We talked about how his story inspires others and about the greatness of his destiny. It didn't matter whether he was the eighth or the eighteenth, the point was that he recognized The Bab and that he achieved such greatness and fulfilled his destiny.
We ended with a prayer and then had tea and refreshments and even though it was very last minute, they got more out of this activity that I could have possibly anticipated.
I am so excited to do it again and I would love to try it with exactly 18 kids... Maybe next year...
Post script: We actually did this two years ago now and last year I got the opportunity to try it with extra kids, not quite 18, but close. What I found is that, unless you have a huge house or a large space where people can really spread out it is much more effective to do with a smaller group of kids simply because they have to search for themselves and will be less likely to follow others or to see where someone else gets it if they wander in at the same time. I was also - so I thought- better prepared and found green gemstones that we used to represent the male Letters of the Living and a green star for Tahirih. Though I think I prefer the different colors of the same shape as it lends itself to further discussion on the different capacities and destinies of these distinguished individuals. If you try this please let me know what you think.
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