A Birthday Cake in Cambridge

On ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s birthday, 23 May 1912, which was also the anniversary of the Báb’s Declaration, over 100 guests were at the Breed home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to welcome Him. Alice Breed, the mother-in-law of ‘Alí-Kulí Khán, “had baked Him a birthday cake with sixty-eight candles, and to symbolize universality and the love many bore Him . . . had decorated it with tiny flags of the United States, Persia and England. Her first cake fell and she had to bake another.”

Marzieh Gail continues: “Significantly, He did not stay for the festivities. He forgave this time, but had forbidden the celebration of His birthday.” Six years before, He had told pilgrims that besides Naw-Rúz the Holy Days were only for the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, and now in His address He spoke only of the Báb’s Declaration, “saying not a word about Himself.” Afterward, Alice persuaded Him to step into the dining room, see the festive table and the cake, and take a little refreshment. He sat in a large brocaded chair, but soon left.

Mírzá Maḥmúd’s diary adds that, at Mrs Breed’s request, the Master lit the first candle on the cake, and then each of the friends in turn lit one.

Source: Marzieh Gail, Arches of the Years, ch. 17, ‘The Fallen Birthday Cake’ (quoted in Earl Redman, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Their Midst, p. 137); Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání, Maḥmúd’s Diary, 23 May 1912.

Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: birthday).

Various. *bahaistories.com archive*. https://bahaistories.com/subject/birthday