Typically, there aren't really wintertime holidays for Afghans, says Kazim Abdullahi, a former translator who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces and came to the United States about nine years ago through the Special Immigrant Visa program.
They do celebrate New Year's Day, or Nowruz. They just don't do it on Jan. 1. They follow the calendar of Afghanistan, which puts the first day of the year on the spring equinox in March or April.
And Kazim says Afghan's New Year's parties are typically mobile. Celebrators go from house to house, greeting one another with "Happy New Year," typically starting with the eldest person in the community.
Each house serves tea or a dish called Haft mewa — a syrupy mix of seven fruits and nuts that all start with the same letter in the Dari language, and it all melts and congeals into a tasty treat.
"We have a conversation for five, 10, 15 minutes," Kazim says. "After that we just hug each other and go to the next house."
Generally, children are rewarded with gifts of money.
And while the Afghan culture typically doesn't celebrate Christmas or Easter, for obvious reasons, he says there are two "Eids" — official Islamic holidays — in the spring. About a week before the first Eid, Afghan women typically launch into a bout of spring cleaning.
"They clean carpets," Kazim says. "They repaint. They wash the walls. They change the entire design in preparation of the Eid."
And the men are required to upgrade their wardrobe with fresh new duds.
"Oh, it's the New Year, even though I have 10 pairs of shoes, I have to find brand new shoes, because it's Eid," Kazim says.
Kazim says the Afghan community in Spokane has continued some of these traditions, with some modifications. On New Year's, for example, everyone celebrates in a single location — the community is too small to go door to door. And as a matter of financial pragmatism, Kazim says he doesn't give all the kids money — there are too many of them.
He's been happy to join his American friends for Christmas celebrations, though the tradition around opening presents in front of everyone took some getting used to.
"In my country, it's disrespectful to open them in front of people," Kazim says.
And he's dabbled with other American traditions, including the classic Thanksgiving feast.
"We don't even know how to cook turkey," Kazim says.
Five or six years ago, he bought a big frozen turkey from WinCo Foods and put it in the oven. After about 10 minutes, he says, the skin on the outside started burning.
"I got one of those big knives — a butchering knife — and tried to cut the turkey in pieces," he says. "The outside was melted. But the inside was fully ice."
Something, Kazim realized, had gone wrong.
"I Googled it and I figured out, 'Oh, you have to prepare the turkey two or three days before,'" Kazim says. "I look at my wife — I'm like 'Honey, I give up.'"
Botching your ambitious cooking plan? That's an American holiday tradition, too. ♦
