Seeing in the New Year

Traditional Now Roz, or New Year, celebrations, once banned by the Taleban, are enjoying a strong resurgence in Afghanistan.

Many here will mark the day, which coincides with the vernal equinox on March 20, with traditional meals of fish, boiled eggs, sweet grass pudding, and lots of jelabi, a popular sweet. Families will gather for picnics in the hills surrounding Kabul, in city parks and even in cemeteries, where they will spend the day relaxing, singing and flying kites and balloons.

The day is also special for couples who have become engaged during the previous year, because it is traditionally one of the few days of the year when the prospective bride and groom may meet, especially under the system of arranged marriage.

For some, the festivities will continue into the next day, celebrated as "farmer's day," on which villagers observe old rituals associated with agriculture.

Despite the resurgence of these customs, some religious leaders continue to condemn these New Year’s activities as blasphemous, largely because their origin is rooted in pre-Islamic times. The date belongs to the old solar calendar that is still widely used in the region, rather than the lunar months of the Islamic year.

Despite the admonitions, people like Zaman, 25, a military officer from Parwan province in north Afghanistan who is currently stationed in Kabul, said he plans to join in the celebrations.

Speaking to IWPR as he was buying pounds of jelabi, fish and cookies, Zaman said he will spend the day celebrating his recent wedding engagement with his fiancee's family, in hope that the day will bring good luck. "I feel very happy,” he said.

Imamuddin, 57, a Kabul shopkeeper and jelabi maker, said his business was booming last week as city residents flocked to his shop.

“I have been selling jelabi for 40 years," he said. “People buy jelabi nine days before Now Roz and 20 days after it.”

Nafes Gul, 44, said she plans to celebrate the day by giving gifts, eating traditional foods and wearing new clothes and cosmetics, such as the henna used to colour one’s hands. She said her family plans to visit various shrines, have a picnic and sing songs throughout the day.

"There is no Taleban to [stop] us now," she said.

Khalida, 27, remembers how she marked her engagement on Now Roz three years ago when the Taleban were still in power.

“Everything was hidden," she said. She said her future in-laws brought jelabi and fish for the celebration. “We all came together in one room, closed the doors and sent the children outside to [warn] us if the Taleban were coming…. We were listening to tapes and beating a drum.”

That night, she recalled, her fiancee “brought a bouquet of flowers and a ring, and I felt a great deal of joy”.

In the countryside, Haji Noor Agha, 55 said he plans to celebrate Now Roz and “farmer's day”.

“Every year we celebrate this day," he said, explaining how farmers hang flowers from the horns of their oxen and turn the soil by hand.

But many traditionalists like Agha say they would abandon their celebrations if told to do so by local religious leaders.

In fact, even through the Taleban are gone and many Afghans look forward to the new year festivities, the question of whether it’s appropriate to mark the holiday is still hotly debated by religious scholars and leaders.

Ayatollah Muhseni, a politically powerful Shia religious scholar, said he approves of celebrating New Roz as a secular rather than religious holiday.

“Now Roz is a tradition of Afghans," said Qari Abul Rahaman Qari Zada, 35, the Sunni imam of the largest mosque in Kabul, Puli Khashti. “There is no ban on that day from the perspective of Islam, if [people] hold a party, eat something or give someone a gift."

Quari Zada said that Islam neither requires nor bans Now Roz celebrations, but he said people are forbidden to mark the day with music, singing or dancing.

But Shekh Zada, 38, a mullah north of Kabul, argued that because the celebration is not sanctioned by Islam, that means it is banned. Holding festivities would indicate respect for the day, he said, and anyone who does so "will become an atheist".

Shekh Zada argued that there are two holiday periods in Islam: after Ramadan and during the Haj or pilgrimage period.

Given the debate among religious scholars, some people have decided to forego holiday plans.

Gul Bashra, 40, said she will not celebrate Now Roz. "I decided not to celebrate that day, because there are two days of happiness in Islam," she said. I advise my children not to celebrate [New Year], and I will never oppose Islam."

Shahabuddin Tarakhel is a regular IWPR contributor in Kabul.