October 17 has been declared International intangible cultural Heritage day. Throughout the day on Facebook, it is possible to keep track of the common activities of intangible cultural heritage through the use of instant tags #nematerialacultura and #livingheritage. The concept of intangible cultural heritage refers to knowledge, skills, habits and customs passed down from generation to generation (including from teacher to pupil) and used until today. Intangible cultural heritage is alive – it changes as people, circumstances and life as a whole change.
UNESCO recognises as intangible cultural heritage “the forms, knowledge and skills of custom, play and oral expression, as well as related instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces recognised by communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals as part of their cultural heritage.”
* the UNESCO Convention on the Conservation of intangible cultural Heritage, to which Latvia acceded in 2005, was adopted in 2003.
* in 2008, UNESCO's representative list of humanity's intangible cultural heritage includes the tradition and symbolism of the Song and Dance Celebration in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 
https://nematerialakultura.lv/…/dziesmu-un-deju-svetku…/ https://ich.unesco.org/…/baltic-song-and-dance…
* in 2009, a Suitu cultural space listed on UNESCO's intangible cultural Heritage for urgent conservation https://nematerialakultura.lv/Elementi/suitu-kulturtelpa/ https://ich.unesco.org/en/USL/suiti-cultural-space-00314
* on 29 September 2016, the Law on intangible cultural Heritage is adopted in Latvia, which provides for the drawing up of a list of intangible cultural heritage of Latvia.
* in 2022, UNESCO's representative list of humanity's intangible cultural heritage includes the element “floating trees,” also represented by the craft skills of the Gauja rafters https://nematerialakultura.lv/…/gaujas-plostnieku…/ https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/timber-rafting-01866
* in 2024, the list of Latvian NCM was supplemented with the values “making of traditional Latvian belts and waistlines” and “making fishing nets on the west coast of the Gulf of Riga”. In total, 40 different values have been recorded in the national OMC list of Latvia, and the list is updated annually.
Intangible cultural heritage in Latvia is closely related to historical lands. THE LIST of OMC includes:
- 11 elements from Latgale;
- 12 elements from Vidzeme, including 1 element from Riga;
- 6 elements from Kurzeme;
- 2 elements from Zemgale;
- 9 elements with no specific affiliation to any historical land.
For more information on the values of the intangible cultural Heritage List of Latvia: https://nematerialakultura.lv/
Video material on intangible cultural heritage: https://youtube.com/playlist…
Photo: rafts in Gauja, the 30 th century. Photo is stored in the archives of the Tourism information Centre of the municipality of Valmiera.
