Greece Adds New Elements to National Intangible Cultural Heritage Index

Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni announced last week the inclusion of 16 new elements to Greece’s National Directory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

According to Minister Mendoni, these elements reflect part of the popular expression, creativity, music, and dance of Greece. She said these elements of cultural heritage help to establish Greece’s “collective identity,” and she was cited by GTP saying these latest additions: Demonstrate the importance we give to the protection of oral traditions and expressions, to social practices and festive events, to knowledge concerning nature, to the know-how associated with traditional handicraft; to all those elements that make up Greek folk tradition and our intangible cultural heritage.”

Since 2008, Greece has included 39 elements on the directory. The new elements just added include

1. The Genitsaroi and Boules tradition of Naoussa
2. The popular guitar used in the “laiko” music genre
3. Elefsina’s Mesosporitissa ritual
4. The traditional water management practices of Lassithi, Crete
5. Englouvi’s Lentils, Lefkada
6. Lefkada’s “porsnaiko” knife
7. The Argoustaria tradition of Kastoria
8. The open-air festival of Agia Agathi, Aitoliko
9. The cheese-making tradition of Limnos (melihloro/melipasto)
10. The “stafnokari” fishing tradition of Aitoliko
11. The Nea Aghialos vine cultivation
12. The Kykles dance of the Ioannina region
13. The cultivation and processing of tobacco in Macedonia and Thrace
14. The Olympos feast, Karpathos.
15. The Ai Giorgis ritual of Ano Doliana, Arcadia
16. The art pottery tradition of the Kourtzis family, Lesvos