News item | 06-12-2023 | 9:00 am
Summer Carnival and Grassland Irrigation are both on the UNESCO list of intangible heritage. This was decided on December 6 during an annual meeting of the committee of the UNESCO Intangible Heritage Convention in Botswana. This so-called ‘Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’ contains traditions, customs and crafts from all over the world that are worth passing on to new generations.
Summer Carnival
The Netherlands has nominated the Summer Carnival for the UNESCO list because of the cultural diversity of the annual street parade through the city center of Rotterdam. This 5-kilometre procession with more than 2,500 dancers in colorful costumes, 25 carnival groups and floats attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the Netherlands every year. The multi-colored parade harkens back to carnival traditions from the Antilles, Cape Verde, Suriname and Spain. Groups with different backgrounds prepare for a year. Together they make costumes or floats and rehearse for the parade. This joint effort truly makes the Summer Carnival a ‘living heritage of humanity’.
Grassland irrigation
Together with other European countries, the Netherlands has nominated the technique of grassland irrigation for the UNESCO list of intangible heritage. The landscape managers and volunteers use this ingenious technique to ensure that river water flows over a meadow via channels. This releases water and nutrients to the land, making it more fertile, less likely to dry out and better able to withstand frost. Grassland irrigation also ensures more biodiversity. The Netherlands has had grassland irrigation since the Middle Ages. The technique is still used in parts of Overijssel and North Brabant.
UNESCO list of intangible heritage
Just as with world heritage, intangible heritage also includes an international UNESCO list. This is the International Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This contains traditions, rituals, customs and crafts that people want to pass on to future generations. This requires a different approach than protecting monuments or museum objects. In the case of intangible heritage, ‘protection’ therefore means keeping it alive by practicing and passing on knowledge and skills to new generations.
The miller’s craft, corso culture and falconry are Dutch intangible heritage that are already on the UNESCO list.