A UNESCO committee with a long name and a long responsibility for preserving elements of the world’s cultural heritage just added 33 more items to its “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.”
New items added to the list are as diverse as could be imagined. Al-Qatt Al-Asiri, seen above, is an Arabian tradition carried out only by women. The pizza-twirling tradition of Naples made the list, as did the traditional work and training of Dutch millers, music traditions of the Ivory Coast, Cuban peasant poetry and music, Indonesian boat-building and more.
The list, which is maintained by the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, seeks to show the diversity of human endeavor, and to highlight elements that might otherwise be overlooked or lost.
Interestingly, a significant number of the items added were proposed by multiple countries, where traditions unite people even as borders may divide them. Macedonia and Turkey put up their Spring Day; Iran and Azerbaijan jointly sponsored Kamancha, a stringed-instrument tradition; and 1st of March traditions had joint sponsorship from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania.
