Opening evening at La Scala theater, in Milan Italy, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. The custom of Italian opera singing is among the many 55 cultural practices to be inscribed to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List this yr.

Luca Bruno/AP

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Luca Bruno/AP

Opening evening at La Scala theater, in Milan Italy, Thursday Dec. 7, 2023. The custom of Italian opera singing is among the many 55 cultural practices to be inscribed to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List this yr.

Luca Bruno/AP

The U.N.’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has added 55 new inscriptions to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List for 2023, in an effort to safeguard conventional artwork, dance, meals, craftmanship and rites of passage.

The cultural practices embody Italian opera singing, rickshaws and rickshaw portray in Bangladesh, and ceviche — citrus marinated fish and shellfish — a cornerstone of Peruvian conventional delicacies. More than 70 nations put ahead nominations at UNESCO’s annual Intergovernmental Intangible Heritage Committee assembly held in Kasane, Botswana, this week.

Six cultural practices have been added to the checklist as a result of they want urgent safeguarding, resembling Mek Mulung. The Malaysian theater custom shares legends by way of dialogue, tune and dance. Popular for the reason that 18th century, it’s now in peril of dying out.

Other cultural practices in want of pressing safeguarding embody Syrian glassblowing, olive cultivation in Turkey, the marriage dish of Xeedho in Djibouti, Ingoma Ya Mapiko, a celebratory dance custom practiced by the Makonde individuals of Mozambique, and the Poncho Para’í de 60 Listas de Piribebuy, a home made garment from Paraguay.

With these new additions, UNESCO’s residing heritage checklist now contains 730 cultural practices unfold throughout 145 nations.

Over the previous 20 years since its inception, UNESCO has financed greater than 140 safeguarding initiatives internationally, totaling round $12 million.

“This convention is a powerful tool for safeguarding cultural diversity and local identities in the context of globalization,” stated UNESCO’s Director General, Audrey Azoulay, in a press release, including the significance of pondering past buildings and different bodily landmarks in the case of defending the world’s cultural heritage. “It is no longer just a matter of monuments, sites or stones. The convention recognizes that heritage is also alive – that it can be sung, written, listened to and touched. Each of us carries a part of this heritage in us, and protects it.”