Latvia
 Latvia |
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|---|---|---|
| Location of Latvia
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| National Assembly | Latvia | |
| Statistics: | ||
| Total Population | ||
| - | UN 2021[1] | 1,873,919 |
| Bahá'í pop. | ||
| - | Bahá'í source | |
| - | Non-Bahá'í source | 45 |
| History: Firsts |
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| - | Bahá'í to visit | 1927, Martha Root |
| - | Local Assembly | 1991, Riga |
| - | National Assembly | 1999 |
| How to contact: | ||
| - | info@bahai.lv | |
| Official Website | https://www.bahai.lv/ | |
 Related media
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| Categories: Latvia • People | ||
The Republic of Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. Christianity is the predominant religion and Latvian is the official language.
In recent history Latvia was under the rule of the Russian Empire until declaring independence in 1918 in the wake of the First World War. During and after the Second World War the region was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and it remained a constituent of the Soviet Union until achieving independence again in 1991.
The Bahá’í Faith was first proclaimed in Latvia in the late 1920s with a small community being established in the 1990s after Soviet era religious restrictions were relaxed.
History[edit]
In 1927 Martha Root taught the Bahá’í Faith in Latvia while undertaking a teaching tour of the Baltic States. She visited Riga where she was greeted by a group of Esperantists who arranged for her to give a public lecture at the President's palace. Bahá’í books were presented to Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs at the event, which the Minister was to present to the President. Root also gave press interviews at her hotel while in the city with four newspaper articles being published regarding her visit.[2]
Martha Root visited Riga to teach again in 1935,[3] however the Second World War prevented efforts to establish a Bahá’í community in the late 1930s and early 1940s and teaching the Faith in the country was impossible after it was incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Soviets had made Bahá’í administration and communal activity illegal in 1938.[4]
In the late 1980's restrictions on religion began to be relaxed in Soviet territory and by 1989 Darrel and Sylvia Vice had pioneered to Riga holding a Nineteen Day Feast in the city in September that year.[5] In October 1990 the Faith received extensive publicity in Riga when hundreds of Bahá’í books were displayed in an exhibit at the Latvian Central State Library with the exhibit being covered in three national television news broadcasts.[6]
In 1991 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Riga was established as the first in the country and in 1992 a joint National Spiritual Assembly for the Baltic States was established assuming responsibility for administrating the Faith in Latvia.[7] In 1993 the European Bahá’í Youth Council held regional training seminars to develop leadership qualities in youth in Daugavpils, Latvia,[8] and in 1994 a teaching team of twenty-four youth from the US, Canada, and Europe taught across Latvia and participated in an International Youth Unity Festival organized by the Baltic States National Assembly.[9] In 1996 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Riga was officially recognized by the Latvian government and the Bahá’í community of Latvia was officially registered.[10]
In 1999 Latvia held its first Bahá’í National Convention in the House of Architects in Riga with forty people attending the Convention, including Counsellors Maija Philainen and Polin Rafat, and International Counsellor Hartmut Grossman represented the Universal House of Justice. Latvia established an independent National Spiritual Assembly at the convention.[11]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ "World Population Prospects 2022". population.un.org. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
- ↑ M. R. Garis, Martha Root: The Lioness at the Threshold, Baha'i Publishing Trust: Wilmette, 1983, p 273
- ↑ M. R. Garis, Martha Root: The Lioness at the Threshold, Baha'i Publishing Trust: Wilmette, 1983, p 412
- ↑ Moojan Momen, Russia, 1995, published at Bahai-Library Online, accessed 31 October 2022
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 214. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 367. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 20 (1986-1992), Pg(s) 215. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1994). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 22 (1993-1994), Pg(s) 122. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1996). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 23 (1994-1995), Pg(s) 170. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (1998). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 25 (1996-1997), Pg(s) 100. View as PDF.
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 44. View as PDF.
