Culture of Afghanistan
Afghanistan's culture is historically strongly connected to nearby Persia, including the same religion, as the people of both countries have lived together for thousands of years.
Its location at the crossroads of Central, South and Western Asia historically made it a hub of diversity, dubbed by one historian as the "roundabout of the ancient world".
Despite this, nearly all Afghans follow Islamic traditions, celebrate the same holidays, dress the same, consume the same food, listen to the same music and use Persian as the inter-ethnic lingua franca to a certain extent.
Its culture is strongly tied with elements of Central Asia,[5][6] which can be seen in the likes of language, cuisine and classical music.
Kabul has long been the regional cultural capital, but outsiders have tended to focus on the cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif with its Qataghani style.
Lyrics across the country are typically in both Dari-Persian and Pashto, Uzbeki, Hazaragi, Hindi, and western style songs and music are also very popular in Afghanistan.
There are smaller number of Afghans who can understand Russian, mainly among the northern Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmen groups.
Some notable poets include Khushal Khan Khattak, Rahman Baba, Massoud Nawabi, Nazo Tokhi, Ahmad Shah Durrani, and Ghulam Muhammad Tarzi.
[13] Some of the famous Persian-language poets and authors from the 10th to 15th centuries are Rumi, Rabi'a Balkhi, Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, Jami, Alisher Navoi, Sanai, Abu Mansur Daqiqi, Farrukhi Sistani, Unsuri, and Anvari.
[18] The important architectural sites are found in Herat, Mazar-I-Sharif, Ghazni,[19] Qandahar, and Firuzkoh in Ghor Province.
UNESCO has acknowledged Afghanistan's role by declaring the Minaret of Jam and the Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed in 2001, World Heritage Sites.
Houses in rural Afghanistan historically have been made of mudbricks and mud, and have a series of rooms located around a private rectangular courtyard where women and children can move around without being seen by the public.
In recent years, however, Afghans living in rural areas began building their homes using cement and bricks, similar as those built in the big cities.
[20] In the north and west they are typically in fortified villages called qalahs ("fortresses"), whereas in the mountainous northern and eastern regions they differ, for example wooden multistoried dwellings in Nuristan.
The nomadic kuchi people live in large tents because they are constantly on the move from one part of the country to another.
[21] The lands of Afghanistan have a long history of art, with the world's earliest known usage of Buddha's oil painting found in cave murals in the country.
Afghan cuisine is based on cereals like wheat, maize, barley and rice, which are the nation's chief crops.
The Ghazi Stadium, which was built during the reign of King Amanullah Khan, was once used for a venue for public executions by the Taliban government.
Since the country has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world, the United States began establishing a number of Lincoln learning centers to help with this problem and promote American culture in Afghanistan.
[39] In addition to this, Baghch-e-Simsim (based on the American Sesame Street) was launched in late 2011 to help Afghan children learn from preschool onward.
Programs in the show "will be partly filmed in Afghanistan with the rest" lifted from other versions in Muslim countries including Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as Mexico and Russia.
[42] Farmer's Day, also known as Nauruz (Nowruz), is an ancient annual Afghan festival which celebrates both the beginning of spring and the New Year.
This festival is to celebrate the arrival of spring as plants, trees, and flowers start to bloom making the weather pleasant.
Families cook various kinds of meals, Samanak, and Haft-mewah or dry fruits that start with the letter (س) or (S) which represents the arrival of spring season.
