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International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage

The International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage, celebrated every year on 17 October, marks the anniversary of the adoption of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Day offers an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of living heritage: the knowledge, practices, expressions, skills and traditions that communities transmit from generation to generation and continue to recreate in response to their environment, history and social life.

For the UNESCO Chair on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Comparative Law at UnitelmaSapienza University of Rome, ICH Day is a key moment to bring the values of the 2003 Convention closer to different audiences, especially younger generations. Through educational, cultural and awareness-raising initiatives, the Chair promotes dialogue on the role of communities in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and on the importance of transmission, participation and intercultural understanding.

This page gathers the initiatives developed by the UNESCO Chair on the occasion of ICH Day, including Living Heritage Goes to School, its edition dedicated to primary schools, Living Heritage Goes to Italian Schools Abroad, and Living Heritage Goes to FAO World Food Forum. Each project translates the principles of the 2003 Convention into accessible activities, learning materials and participatory experiences designed to make living heritage more visible, understandable and meaningful for students, teachers, youth communities and wider audiences.