User:Abdul Noman Azizi

Traditions in Afghanistan
Romualdas Granauskas is a Lithuanian writer, who was born in the year 1939 in the rural region of Mažeikiai, Lithuania. He has written many novels and short stories, such as "The Bread Eater". The short folkloric story "The Bread Eater" is about two generation couples, the old couple and younger couple. The story portrays how the old couple values their Lithuanian traditions and the younger couple does not. In other words, the story "The Bread Eater" tells us about how the Lithuanian traditions are slowly vaporizing, which is true with almost all cultures including Afghanistan. First, in the short story "The Bread Eater", Granauskas focuses on how the traditions are vanishing among new generation and old generation people. In the "The Bread Eater", there are two couples that live under one roof, the old couple and their married daughter with her alcoholic husband. In the story, there are many pieces of evidence showing that the younger couple does not care about their traditions; as the narrator states, "their children grew up ignorant of the taste of home baked bread" (Granauskas, 1975, p.175). To illustrate more, the narrator shows how the younger woman forgets the baking of bread, which is one of their valuable Lithuanian traditions; the story also shows that not only the woman but also her husband does not follow their traditions, the younger man also thinks that traditions are nonsenses. For instance, as the young man in Granauskas’ story mentions, "why doesn't he [the old man, his father-in-law] stay in bed this early in the morning? All that nonsense with the rye" (Granauskas, 1975, p.175-176). In contrast, the old couples always follow their traditions; the old man wakes up every day early morning and works hard till the night; the narrator states: "eight closed eyes altogether, although, one pair was bound to open earlier than the rest" (Granauskas, 1975, p.174). To conclude, the old couples know the real values of their traditions better than the younger ones. Likewise, in Afghanistan, which approximately fifteen ethnic groups are living, such as Tajik, Pashtun, Hazara, Baloch, Uzbek, is one of the most cultured countries in Asia. The Afghan people have many valuable traditions, such as the celebration of the Nowruz and festival of Buzkashi. Nowruz, which translates to a new day, also known as Sal-E-Now is one of the oldest traditions that Afghan people celebrate on the third day of March. In Nowruz, government decorate the city with lighting and people prepare Haft Miwa, which is also known as seven fruits; Haft Miwa is a mixture of seven dried fruits in a pot full of water, and these seven fruits all together in a pot have a valuable meaning. On the third of March, in Afghanistan, the winter finishes, the trees start to grow again, and these seven fruits are a symbol of the new day for people. Furthermore, in Nowruz, the government creates a festival called Buzkashi, which is a competition among the horse-mounted players, who try to place the carcass of a goat in a circle called goal. In the festival of Buzkashi, people come from rural areas to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to watch the competition. To sum up, not only in Afghanistan but in all countries traditions play a vital role, it is a symbol of a country. In addition, being a part in one of your cultural traditions is an unforgettable experience that gives a tremendous joy, but whenever one sees the vanishing of the value of a tradition, it will hurt a lot. Grabauskas’ theme in the short story "The Bread Eater" is that the traditions are slowly vaporizing due to the passage of the time. Similar applies to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, the elders were celebrating each festival with great preparation; people were starting preparation more than a week ago by decorating their homes. My grandfather always says that in the past, people had more love for each other and they were starting preparation one or two weeks early for Nowruz by buying the dry fruits and kits. For instance, on the fifth day on March 2018, I called my cousin Hamed, to come to my home and celebrate Nowruz and fly kite with each other, but he responds that he is not interested to celebrate. Personally, I also experienced that the new generations are not very enthusiastic about their traditions and they are so busy with the works that sometimes they even forget about the days and dates of their traditions. To sum up, traditions play a key role in preserving culture and if the new generation does not follow their tradition, a day will come when people will no longer follow their traditions. Furthermore, it is traditions that hold people together as a community and create love and joy among people. Thus, young generations and the government are responsible for maintaining their value.