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For all our many, many flaws, us humans are pretty cool. From the beginning of time, we’ve formed communities and developed traditions that separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom – art, music, dances, religions, holidays, communal celebrations – all of the things that make life interesting came straight from the brains of human beings who wanted to connect with the people around them. Pretty special, right?
UNESCO, the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, certainly thinks so. It was founded in 1945 with the goal of ‘strengthening our shared humanity’ by preserving and sharing heritage across the world.
Since 2008, part of that mission has involved the curation of the Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage (LICH), an inventory of things like dances, art styles, music and craftwork, which have been passed down through generations but can’t be physically protected as UNESCO World Heritage sites are.
Local governments are encouraged to support awareness of the practices on the list and to help ensure that they don’t die out with time. Almost any tradition that holds cultural significance within a country or region can be nominated for inscription on the list. For instance, this year Italian cooking is a newcomer, as is the religious celebration of Diwali, and a South American dance style called Joropo.
The list is packed full of fascinating, niche cultural curios and practices, many of which you would likely never know about if they weren’t local to you. For instance, did you know that there are a limited number of ‘zinc roofers’ in Paris who can repair the roofs of buildings from the nineteenth century? Or that Indonesia has a distinctive style of puppet theatre known as Wayang? It features handmade wooden characters and has been said to go back to the first millennium BC, and was added to the LICH in 2008.
You can look through the full list here, complete with information on each practice and its origins. Who needs TikTok when you can doomscroll through thousands of years of human history?
The full list of new cultural practices recognised by UNESCO
Here are all the new practices and traditions that UNESCO has added to the LICH this year.
Africa
- Guruna, a practice of pastoral, socio-cultural and artistic retreats centered on livestock among the Massa: Chad, Cameroon
- The zaffa in the traditional wedding: Djibouti, Comoros, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Somalia
- Koshary, daily life dish and practices associated with it: Egypt
- Gifaataa, Wolaita people New Year festival: Ethiopia
- Mvet Oyeng, musical art, practices and skills associated with the Ekang community: Gabon, Cameroon, Congo
Highlife music and dance: Ghana - Tsapiky, rhythm and musical style characteristic of the South-West region of Madagascar: Madagascar
- Moroccan Caftan: art, traditions and skills: Morocco
- Tchiloli, living theatre of Sao Tome and Principe in the quest of justice: Sao Tome, Principe
- Al-Jertiq practices, rituals and expressions for preservation, protection, abundance and fertility: Sudan
- The bearing of the sacred stone or the rites of the New Year in the Guin country: Togo
Asia
- Behzad’s style of miniature art: Afghanistan
- Traditional Saree weaving art of Tangail: Bangladesh
- Georgian wheat culture: traditions and rituals: Georgia
- Diwali: India
- Pantun: Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam
- Traditional skills, techniques and knowledge for the conservation and transmission of wooden architecture: Japan
- Washi, craftsmanship of traditional Japanese hand-made paper: Japan
- Traditional knowledge and cultural contexts of making Maksym, a traditional Kyrgyz beverage: Kyrgyzstan
- Traditional knowledge and skills in making Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Karakalpak yurts: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan
- Kithul Madeema/Kithul Kapeema, an ancient Indigenous technology for tapping Kithul: Sri Lanka
- Culture of Sumanak/Sumalak cooking: Tajikistan
- The art of breeding Turkmen alabay: Turkmenistan
Caribbean, Central & South America
- Cuarteto: music, dance and lyrics in the city of Córdoba: Argentina
- Christmas Bram and Sambai of Gales Point Manatee: Belize
- Festivity of the Virgen of Guadalupe – Patroness of Sucre: Bolivia
- Family tradition circus: Chile
- The practice of Cuban Son: Cuba
- The Confraternity of flowers and palms: El Salvador
- The Compas of Haiti
- Sarawja, Aimara music and dance of Moquegua: Peru
- Joropo: Venezuela
- Representation of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ in Iztapalapa: Mexico
Europe
- Brussels’ rod marionette tradition: Belgium
- Bagpipes and bagpipe playing in Bulgaria: transmission of knowledge and skills: Bulgaria
- Amateur theatre acting: Czechia
- Commandaria wine: Cyprus
- Swimming pool culture: Iceland
- Italian cooking, between sustainability and biocultural diversity: Italy
- Basketry traditions: Poland
- Cobza, traditional knowledge, skills and music: Romania, Republic of Moldova
- Yodelling: Switzerland
- Antep İşi, drawn thread embroidery of Gaziantep: Türkiye
Middle East
- Ayeneh-Kari, the art of mirror-work in Persian architecture: Iran
- Al-Muhaibis: social practices and traditions associated with it: Iraq
- Al-Mihrass tree: knowledge, skills and rituals associated with it: Jordan
- The Diwaniya, a unifying cultural practice: Kuwait
- Bisht (men’s Abaa) skills and practices: Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates
- Traditional weaving of Al Sadu: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar
- Arabic Kohl: Syrian Arab Republic, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Oman, State of Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates
- Al Ahalla, a living performing art: United Arab Emirates
- Hadrami Dan gathering: Yemen
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