Pashto Language Blog

Attan, the Afghan National Dance

Attan which is referred to as the Afghan National Dance is the very famous Afghan group Dance in Afghanistan. Attan is a very old traditional dance. It is said to have been one of the religious traditions of  the pagans living in the area that  is called Afghanistan today. This dance later became part of the Pashton Muslim  tribes’ tradition.

The dance is preformed to Dohul, which is a big barrel two-sided drum, and usually accompanied by other musical instruments like flute, however today the electronic musical instruments are also used to produce the music for Attan. The dance usually starts with a small group of men, dancing to a slow beat of the drums, and more people join the group as the dance progresses. The person with the best dance skills leads the team dancing in a circle. The dance gets faster little by little reaching to a point where the number of people in the group decreases and those with the most skills usually remain the last people in the groups.  The Attan gets most exciting when it gets to the fastest point where the remaining Attan dancers show their skills and moves. The lead of the team controls the drummer signaling him the number of beats and the types of beats he wants.

Afghans Perform this Dance to celebrate various occasions like weddings, national holidays, victories and other happy occasions. It is also a good party-dance with friends.  Both men and women perform Attan, the only major difference is that men perform the Attan in both public and private but women perform it in private such as weddings and parties where the audience is only women.

The following are some of the related vocabulary

Dool                ډول           drum

Toola              توله            flute

Atann              اتڼ        Attan dance

Natsaa             نڅا         dance

Mili                 ملي          National

Mili atann ملي اتڼ           National dance/National Attan dance

Greeting people is the first step to knowing them and eventually making friends with them. This is true in Afghanistan too, but it is even more important than it is in many western cultures. Greetings are so important in Afghanistan that some people say Salaam Alaikum (hello) even when returning to a room after only a few minutes’ absence.  

Greetings are the first impression that you make. Your greetings can tell a lot about you in Afghan culture – with a proper greeting you will leave a positive impression on the other party. However, if you fail to greet people properly or do not greet them at all is considered extremely rude and they might think of you as being too proud or unsocial.

There are numerous greetings in Pashto, the shortest being Salaam Alaikum (Hello) to the longest, which can be several full sentences. You choose the type of greetings depending on the situation and the person you are greeting. To always be polite it is necessary to at least say the shortest form, Salaam Alaikum, literally meaning “peace be upon you”. If you feel that a longer greeting is necessary, (for instance if it is a friend that you have not seen for weeks or if the person is greeting you back warmly), then you can add more greetings after saying the initial “Salaam alaikum.”

Here are examples of Pashto greetings:

Short greetings:

Ahmad: Salaam alaikum, Sanga astai?

Mahmud: Salam alaikum/walaikum salaam, kha yam manana, taso sanga astai?

Ahmad: Shokor dae, zhuwande osae.

The above sentences should be enough to keep you going, however depending on the situation and the relationship with the person, these are the sentences that you can add to your greetings:

Koor ke khairyat dae? (کور کې خیریت دی؟) How is everything at home?/How is your family?

Sehat de kha de? (صحت دې ښه دی؟) Is your health good?/How is your health?

Koor wadaan, manana. (کور ودان، مننه) May you be prosperous! Thank you!