When my daughter, Meghann, and I hosted Feast last spring for the month of Jal�l (Glory), we worked a couple of months in advance to prepare a "Feast Box" for every member of our community. The box symbolizes the Feast itself, and each of the items in the box symbolizes a portion of the Feast. The boxes were presented to each person as they arrived, along with a flyer/program. Here's an outline of the construction and contents of the boxes, and an overview of the Feast program from that night:
You can purchase small gift boxes, or even small gift bags made of paper or fabric. The boxes I constructed were made out of card stock using a giftbox pattern. I recycled some old report covers that contained a large abstract graphic designed by my late friend, Jane Terpening. The light and dark aqua design on the coverpaper was large enough to allow me to trace the pattern without including any of the text that was printed as well. (If you wish to re-cycle nice cardstock that has printing on one side, just trace, score, and cut the pattern on the wrong side of the cardstock and decorate the boxes as you wish. You might even want to leave them a solid shade and seal them with a round golden sticker.)
To represent the "Devotional" portion of the Feast, each box contained a sticker which had a short Hidden Word printed on it. You might wish to include a short prayer or an attribute of God in addition or in place of a Hidden Word.
To represent the "Administrative" portion of the Feast, each box contained a shiny new penny. Each penny was wrapped in a quote taken from Bah�'� Prayers written above the "Prayer for the Fund" which begins, "All the friends of God...should contribute to the extent possible, however modest their offering may be...." (Note: This penny was a personal, symbolic gift from me, the host, to my friends. A container marked "Pennies for the Fund" was placed by the door leading out of feast for those who wished to donate their penny to the fund, but this was not required--everything was a symbol.)
And, to respresent the "Social" portion of the Feast, each box contained a foil-wrapped chocolate candy.
It's a good idea to contact your Local Spiritual Assembly in advance to let them know your plans for Feast, and to get an idea of how many friends to plan for, remember you will need a: Box, Hidden Word Sticker, Quote-wrapped Penny, and Piece of Candy, for each one.
In the flyer that we handed out, we dedicated the Devotional portion of Feast to the "Past, Present, and Future New York City Bah�'� Community. And, we asked that each person dedicate one of their prayers to the person seated to their right and to a friend not able to attend that night. Finally, we suggested that each person consider saying a prayer over the next 19 days for the growth and maturation of the community. On the back of the flyer, we listed some additional dedications to friends in the next world.
Since we live in a large community, the devotional portion is usually very srtucted with friends being asked to read from a podium. In smaller communities where the friends gather in cozy livingrooms, this suggestion is probably not needed. But, in the spirit of "universal participation" we structured the devotional portion of our Feast so that after some soft music was played, only three short readings (which were printed in large text on the inside of the flyer) were recited. We announced in advance that after the readings, the room was then open for 15 minutes for anyone to say or chant a prayer from their seat. After the alloted time (and we didn't cut anyone off mid-prayer) we played some more soft music to close the devotional portion.
The most important thing is to have fun putting all the gifts together for your friends. Use these ideas as starting points and create your own theme and variations. Please let me know how these ideas worked or didn't work in your community. If you can add any suggestions I would be very happy to hear them. Feast can never be too exciting!
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