Bahá’u’lláh teaches that all the world’s major faiths come from the same Divine Source. This does not mean they are all exactly the same. Rather, God has sent a series of Divine Educators, Whose purpose is to guide humankind. The faiths established by these Educators represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society.

Those festive, joyous holidays the worldwide Baha’i community celebrates between April 21st and May 2nd every year — provides the occasion for the holiest and happiest days of the Baha’i year.
The Ridvan Festival commemorates the anniversary of the garden sojourn where Baha’u’llah declared His mission outside Baghdad during the twelve days before His banishment to Istanbul (then called Constantinople) in 1863. Baha’u’llah had been exiled to Baghdad ten years earlier in 1853 by a Persian government that feared the rapid spread of His teachings and their progressive impact on society; and now, because His teachings continued to spread and threaten the clerics, Baha’u’llah was being sent into further exile as a result of pressure from that same government.