From November 28 to December 2 Addis-Ababa will host a meeting of the Committee for the protection of intangible cultural heritage. The participants will consider 37 new nominations for including to the Representative List of the intangible cultural heritage of popular customs and forms of creativity of mankind: the traditional chants, rituals and holidays.

The upcoming session, among others issues, will consider the inclusion of the Navruz holiday in the list of cultural heritage. The corresponding application has been submitted by a group of states – Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey requested to include in the List the tradition of cooking bread cakes. They have different names in different countries: pita, katyrma, jupka, yufka.

Tajikistan has submitted its traditional dish “Oshi-palav” to include in the list of intangible cultural heritage.

The intangible cultural heritage list includes traditions and forms of art, transferred from generation to generation. Among them – the oral traditions, performing arts, social ceremonies, holidays and rituals, knowledge and ideas concerning nature and the universe, as well as equipment of traditional crafts.

Representative list is a tool to attract public attention to the intangible heritage. Today it consists of 336 items.

At the forthcoming session, the Committee will consider proposals for the five sites proposed for inclusion in the List of intangible cultural heritage in need of urgent safeguarding. Currently, there are 43 members in this list. This year, it is proposed to include “cossack songs of Dnepropetrovsk region”.