The rulers of Afghanistan have always ignored certain historical events and occasions that have roots in the history of the Persian-speaking people. Despite challenges and barriers being defined by the ruling figures, using the religious approaches as the base of their arguments to remove the occasions from the calendar, the people, including Pashtun fellows celebrate historical occasions such as Nowruz.
Taliban militants tried to ban the celebration of the Nowruz occasion, using the religious approach arguments, but the people across the country celebrated the first day of the New Year in their own ways and customs. The event is basically celebrated coherently across the country, but with minor differences. The event is usually argued to be connected to Zoroastrian religion and history, which does not have any strong source to prove it.
Faraidon Azhand, an Afghan journalist born in Herat, told Hasht-e Subh that part of the tradition in western Afghanistan is such that it cannot be opposed by clerics or those in power. According to him, cooking samanak is still common in most parts of Afghanistan and families cook this food as much as possible. For this reason, the women and girls of the families and relatives come together and sing songs and chants while cooking the Samanak. There is even a special anthem about it.
Azhand says that on the first day of Nowruz occasion, people visit the plains and steppes, which are completely green at this time of the year. Until the early 90s, men used to gather in a special place on Nowruz day and certain entertainment programs were being held there. The sights for picnic were being mobilized with required facilities. The most common games at the time were eggs-competition, bird fight, partridge fights, and dog fight. But these festive neighborhoods were gradually dismantled after the 1990s. In Herat, in addition to Nowruz, people celebrate the first “Wednesday” of the year calling it the “First Wednesday of the Year,” and call the 13th of the first month, as “13 Badar”, During these two days which are additional celebrations to Nowruz, people usually go outdoors to enjoy picnic. It is believed that these two days brings luck for young girls.
The people in northern Afghanistan have their own customs and ways of celebrating the occasion. Red Flowers grow massively, covering most parts of the areas in the northern provinces. As part of the traditions, the people go outdoors on daily bases to enjoy the flowers and nature’s beauty for the first 15 days of the year. The children aged between 10 to 15 collects flowers, decorating them in beautiful baskets; then, go door to door, singing special hymn songs about the flowers and wish new year to families and relatives. In return, the host present the children flour as the sign of hope for a year with prosperity and dignity for all the people. The tradition is that the flour collected by children is being backed by the neighborhoods collectively and distributed among them for developing love bonds.
The children go from house to house while singing this song and the landlord gives them some flour. Later, the children either sell this flour or use it to buy whatever they want on Nowruz, or they take it home and two or three families come together and bake bread from this flour and distribute it to the people.
Buzkashi, walking on green grass and avoiding meat eating on the first night of the New Year are the other northern traditions. They usually cook rice as the main course and vegetable as side dish on the first night of the year. They believe that slaughtering animals on the first day of the years bring bad luck. Further more, when raising the Sakhi Flag, there is a believe that in case it is easily lifted up, the year will be an easy year and in case the flag found heavy, the year will not be so entertaining.
In contrast to other parts of the country, celebration of Nowruz festival in Eastern part of the country is different. Nowruz is being celebrated, but not much officially. “Celebration of Nowruz in this part of the country does not have very long history. It is about a decade that people have been celebrating Nowruz,” said Sayed Nazir, a resident of Khost province. The people celebrate it very simply by visiting relatives and friends, women usually visit shrines and families go outings on the first day of the New Year. A general believed in this part of the country is accepted that in case the first day of the New Year is passed “Happily”, there are chances of having a year with full of enjoyment. So, the people try to avoid any conflict or matters that end unpleasantly.
With the black shadow of Taliban regime over the country, Nowruz is associated with stagnation and stress. Taliban have not announced public holiday and the Ministry of Virtue has declared the event non-Islamic.
[highlight color=”gray”]Hasht-e Subh Persian[/highlight]
