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Afghan Calendar and Months of the Year in Pashto Posted by on Nov 25, 2012 in Uncategorized

Afghans do not use a single type of calendar. There are three different types of calendars used in Afghanistan which are as follow:

  • Hijri Shamsi  (solar Islamic)
  • Miladi /Isawee ( Gregorian /Christian)
  • Hijre Qamari  (lunar Islamic)

Based on the Afghan constitution the official calendar of Afghanistan is Hijri Shamsi. Hijra means emigration and Shamsi means solar. The Hijrai Shamsi year starts from the year the Prophet of Islam Muhammad, peace be upon him, emigrated from the holy city of Mecca to Medina.  The Hijri Shamsi calendar has twelve months.

The beginning of the First month, Hamal, corresponds to the 21st of March in the Solar Christian Calendar. The government offices and official documents use the Hijri Shamsi calendar.  However, some of the official documents like passports, or correspondence that has to do with foreigners or foreign embassies in Afghanistan use the Christian Calendar. Also, majority of  Non-government Organizations use the Christian calendar.

The Lunar Islamic, Hijri Qamari, which also starts from the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is used to calculate the religious holidays. The Lunar Islamic also has twelve months but is ten days shorter than the Solar Islamic year. The ninth month of the Lunar Islamic calendar, Ramadan, is the fasting month for Muslims all over the world.

The Christian year 2012 corresponds to the 1391 Hijri Shamsi year. As demonstrated in the accompanying video  a calendar poster or card usually shows all three calendar types and you can easily find out the dates for each calendar.  However if you want to convert the Christian year to Hijri Shamsi or  vise versa you subtract or add the year 622.

The following are the names of the Hijri Shamis months in Pashto:

 

Woray

March-April

Ghowayay

April-May

Ghbarghole

May-June

Changaskh

June-July

Zmaray

July-August

Wagay

August-September

Tala

September-October

Larrm

October-November

Leenda

November-December

Marghumay

December-January

Selwaga

January-February

Kab

February-Marc

 

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About the Author: Sayed Naqibullah

Sayed Naqibullah speaks Pashto and Dari as his native languages. Since 2004 he has been teaching Dari and Pashto and working as cultrual advisor to NGO workers, foreigners who live, work, or are visiting Afghanistan. Sayed has worked as a linguist for several companies that produce language course-ware. He has worked as a guide, interpreter and translator of a number of NGOs working in Afghanistan. Sayed is also a blog writer on Afghan culture and languages. He is the author of a Dari language textbook called “Dari as a Second Language”.


Comments:

  1. Ben McCormick:

    Do you have a Pashto Calendar?

  2. Mohammad karim:

    Salam I’m Mohammad karim Afghan I’m proud your service for our culture