Free Baha'i Choral Festival This Sunday

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on May 22, 2009 5:45PM

Memorial Day weekend, while truly a blessing, can also be a burden on an aging body no longer impregnable to bun-embraced offal and canned beer. Sunday morning offers a peaceful, spiritual intermission as the third annual Baha'i Choral Festival comes to the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette.

Nearly 200 chorus members from North America and Africa will perform unaccompanied vocal music from a variety of religions and cultures, in addition to traditional Baha'i music. The music will be interrupted occasionally by readings from the scriptures of various world religions, but the plan is to do less of that than in the previous two years. And while it is technically a religious event, unlike many recently formed religions, Baha'i is relatively unintrusive; you'll be allowed to leave the Temple after the concert without drinking Kool-Aid, grafting your soul onto an alien aboard a UFO hidden behind a comet, or pretending to be in love with Katie Holmes.

And if you're not familiar with the Baha'i Temple, seeing the ornate white dome surrounded by gardens on what's forecasted to be a crystal clear Sunday morning is reason enough to attend. The Temple, the oldest of the seven existing Baha'i Temples, is the only one in America.

There are two concerts, one at 10:00 a.m. and one at 12:30 p.m., leaving you free to play cornhole for the next eight hours.

Baha'i House of Worship, 100 Linden Ave., Wilmette, (847) 853-2300, Sunday, May 24, at 10:00 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., free