Weddings are one of the most interesting aspects of a culture, and is something that can be shared and understood by all cultures.
Dari, a dialect of Persian, is an official language of Afghanistan. To get a better perspective of the Afghan culture, one can gain a lot from learning about Afghan wedding.
Before the wedding reception actually begins all close family of the bride and groom stand together to welcome wedding guests. The women stand on the right, while the men stand to the left of the entering guests.
All weddings include a Nikah. Essentially, the Nikah is an event within the wedding where a marriage contract is orally drafted, discussed and agreed upon the immediate family of the bride and groom; however, in modern times this practice has become more of a symbolic tradition rather than being an actual contract between the families.
Traditionally, the bride and groom enter the wedding reception twice. Usually, the second time around--after the Nikah--the bride and groom walk out to a song called "Ahesta Boro," which translates to walk slowly in Dari.
There is also the henna which is brought to by women dressed in traditional Afghan clothing, and the henna is spread on the hands and fingers of the bride and groom.
All weddings include the Attan, a traditional Afghan dance. It is a very fast-paced circular dance that is difficult to perform correctly without proper experience. Besides the Attan, Afghan weddings consists of dances to the live music. Furthermore, much of the weddings, for many guests, is spent dancing. The music at the wedding consists of a drum player and singer--who also tends to be playing an electronic keyboard.
Here are some videos to better show what I have been talking about,
Attan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YpJrTya2p8&feature=related
This is a funny video on Afghan weddings, but most of it is true--albeit, heavily dramatized:
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