Tonight we had a wonderful presentation by the Bahá’í World Centre choir, titled Simple Gifts:

The hall was packed:

The presentation started on time:

It consisted of various performances, with both a sacred:

and light hearted theme:

They even brought the children on for one of the songs:

But my favourite was the “Prayer for the Hands of the Cause of God”, especially seeing as we had the privilege of having the Hand of the Cause Dr. ‘Alí-Muhammad Varqá with us:

Superb performance by the choir. They spent a lot of time practicing, and did a great job.

Last night we attended an Ihtifál in Persian (Farsi). The term “Ihtifál” means “gathering with a program”, and these events are organised regularly here with various topics.

Emails are sent out to all the staff well in advance advertising the programme and venue. Here’s the invitation for last night’s programme:

The programme consisted of musical performances by some of the children as well as staff, and a talk about the history of Iranian art by Dr. Vahid Rafati.

I didn’t understand all of what Dr. Rafati said as my Persian vocabulary is limited, but what I remember of the talk was that Iran has some amazing art and culture, both from before Islam and after. He also talked about the link between religion, spirituality and art. Here he is telling a joke: 

There were some violin performances:

And the santour:

Some friends having refreshments afterwards:

Cute!