Additions to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list

You might be familiar with UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites, or the organization’s World Heritage in Danger list. Did you know that there’s also a Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity?

This week, UNESCO added 47 elements to the existing list of 166, making a new total of 213 inscribed elements in the intangible list. What’s intangible heritage? UNESCO defines it as “living expressions and the traditions that countless groups and communities worldwide have inherited from their ancestors and transmit to their descendants, in most cases orally.”

Some of the new elements are:

•    The traditional art of Azerbaijani carpet weaving
•    Acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine
•    Marimba music and traditional chants from Colombia’s South Pacific
•    Gingerbread craft from Northern Croatia
•    The gastronomic meal of the French
•    Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan
•    Traditional Mexican cuisine
•    Flamenco dance
•    The Mediterranean diet

For the full list, check this list of the first 46 approved elements and this press release describing the final (47th) approved element. Experienced any of them? Tell us!