Martisor of Moldova included in UNESCO's representative list

Chisinau, 6 December /MOLDPRES/ - Martisor (trinket worn in honour of March 1) today was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Education, Culture and Research Minister Monica Babuc, who has attended the event, made public an announcement to this effect on social networks.

The UNESCO meeting took place on the Jeju Island from South Korea today.

On this occasion, Education, Culture and Research Minister Monica Babuc thanked all those who contributed to the promotion of the file, Cultural practices associated to the 1-st of March. “Thank you, December! You were generous with us in 2016, when we found our carpet in UNESCO’s List and, so today, the MARTISOR. We thank all those who contributed, first of all, our colleagues from Romania. Special thanks to the state secretary for culture, Andrei Chistol, who, both in 2016 and now, personally participated in the honourable, yet difficult mission to propel our files into the List! And he succeeded! A long life to MARTISOR! We love you and we are proud!” Monica Babuc wrote on social networks.         

Contacted by MOLDPRES, the scientific secretary of the Ethnography and Natural History Museum, Varvara Buzila, said that Martisor’s inclusion in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was an international recognition of Moldova’s national heritage and treasure. “This recognition unites the states from the region, to be able to further turn to good account the cultural heritage and identity,” Buzila noted.     

The draft on nominating the holiday, Cultural practices associated to the 1-st of March, in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was launched by Moldova’s Culture Ministry in March 2014, in partnership with the Culture Ministries from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia.  

On 5 December 2013, the signing of carols by men’s bands was included in UNESCO’s Representative List and on 1 December 2016 – the traditional techniques of manufacturing wall carpets from Romania and Moldova.   

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor A. Raileanu)