Year of creation: 1998
Domain(s):

- oral traditions and expressions
- performing arts
- social practices, rituals and festive events
- knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
- traditional craftsmanship

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- preservation, protection
- promotion, enhancement
- transmission, (non-)formal education
- revitalization

Year of creation: 1970
Budget: U.S.$55000
Domain(s):

- oral traditions and expressions
- social practices, rituals and festive events
- traditional craftsmanship
- other
- Funeral heritage and religious practices

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- preservation, protection
- promotion, enhancement

Main countries where active:

Australia, Cameroon, China, Congo, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda

Objectives:
OBJECTIVES of FIAT-IFTA: ARTICLE II; Section B and F:
B. To research and jointly study legal, moral, social and scientific issues relating to funeral services and thanatology activities, especially with regard to services rendered in the memorialization and disposition of deceased individuals;
F. To safeguard the Global Funeral Heritage in joint effort with other organizations and to create awareness in governments and international bodies;
Based on Section Band F, FIAT-IFTA as an umbrella organization cooperates, finances activities of partner organizations (ex.ASCE, ALPAR, China Funeral Ass.,Funeral museums) to safeguard traditions like dances and chants related to mourning and death; and encourages studies, research and publications on these subjects. In line with the Convention FIAT-IFTA members promotes awareness and knowledge of these practices among young persons.
EXEMPLE I of the concept: 'global funeral heritage' as meant by FIAT-IFTA in conformity with the spirit of the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage is the report on 'social pratices, rituals and festive events' made by one of our Members Mrs. Teresa Saavedra, ALPAR- Latinamerican Funeral Association:
Las Ñatitas: The Ritual Beyond Death in Bolivia
It is understood that our sense of belonging, as a human characteristic, is the total sum of all those symbols, beliefs, values, traditions and rituals - which fused together result in our cultural identity.
To this effect, it has been put forth, that the definition of "Funeral Heritage", consists of "the expressions, customs, rituals, sites, buildings, constructions and instruments related to death, loss and grief'.
The challenge of working in this area, has led us to generate a series of meetings with authorities and institutions such as the Ethnographic and Folklore Museum, MUSEF in Bolivia, which depends on the Cultural Foundation of the Bolivian Central Bank. MUSEF is one of the most representative organizations in this country, where its archive, one of the very few of its kind, guards very rich informative, historical and cultural data. This material in turn, reflects the socio-cultural processes that have been lived throughout Bolivian history - by its "living cultures" in rural as well as in urban areas. It also serves as the initiation for current and future studies in Anthropology, Ethnology, Ethno History, History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Ethnomusicology and other research areas. During conversation with MUSEF's Director, Ramiro Molina, we coincided on our shared interest of studying the possibility of generating a referential framework, which would allow us to find common ground for future collaboration.
www.musef.org.bo
Inside MUSEF's department of Cultural Outreach and Communication, its head, Mr. Milton Eyzaguirre, shares with us some of the very particular hues of the perspective of certain festivities through the eyes of Andean and Bolivian culture:
"Since Pre Hispanic times, the physical and spiritual care of the deceased was of vital importance. Mummification was a common practice; the body was treated with abundant care and devotion. Life in the other world was transcendental; there were two dimensions of life: life at the physical level and life in the space of the dead. Therefore, in the country's local context, the Catholic dates for remembering All Saints and the Faithfully Deceased on November 1st and 2nd, are celebrated together as the return of the souls of all those deceased. In this context, the celebration is not only on those specific dates but it involves the whole month of November, with dedication to the "sullca" god - a minor or small god.
Furthermore, Mr. Eyzaguirre's investigations show specifically those customs related to the Day of the Dead - "the ritual of sharing food with giving the dead and their souls a meal, a feast. Today, almost all traditions of eating and drinking with the dead have been maintained to this day, as it is observed in Fiesta de Todos los Santos y de Las Ñatitas, where every November 8th, a traditional takes place, where human skulls are adorned with flowers and are taken to cemeteries and churches to be blessed. There is no precise data for the origin of the "riatitas", other than that they originated during pre-Columbian times. The La Paz native "amauta", Sabino López, confirms this fact in his account that before the Spanish conquistadors set foot on the American continent, the "Chullpas", mummified remains of "curacas"(chiefs) were worshiped. To this effect, the skulls deeply related with the soul or "ajayu" in Aymara according to Andean concepts - the body's death is not necessarily related to the death of the spirit of the deceased. It is in this context that the "ñatitas" represent Andean deities, to whom favors are solicited, some are named according to their origin and others are given pseudonyms".
The Bolivian Ambassador to UNESCO, Pablo Groux, mentioned "for a long time the festival of the "ñatitas" has been a celebration beneath the surface, underground, but in the last years it became very well known, due to in large measure to more massive means of public information. There is a great need to preserve it, in spite of some resistance by the church, which has been already dealt with. At this moment it is vital to dig in and study the ritual and its anthropological implications".
The material for a anthropological and historic research is extensive, in the quest to fully understand these traditions and rituals. But the importance of preservation remains the paramount endeavor, in the desire that all efforts are conducive to the collective protection and preservation of this patrimony.
We are certain that access and sharing this research material, is a positive way to raise awareness in the subject of cultural heritage safeguarding.
Our deepest appreciation to MUSEF and its Director, Mr. Ramiro Molina, for allowing us the possibility to look for common platforms for us to work in the future - looking to build new synergies with a multitude of actors and places, in lieu of proposing positive and pragmatic conservation strategies and solutions.
EXEMPLE II ( performing arts):
MUSICA AND MEMORIA: Study and Collection Mourning Music of the FIAT-IFTA Member:
Bunderverband Deutscher Bestatter:
Mourning music plays a central role through the centuries in all culture areas. It was composed not only for famous personalities. Frequently it is also expression of a personal processing of the mourning.
The CD collection "Musica et memoria "is far more than a pure documentation of the development of the mourning music from the Middle Ages to today. For the first time the broad spectrum of the mourning music is comprehensively opened. The selected music pieces show that mourning music does not have to sound inevitably quietly, reserved or sad. Thus the spectrum of the CD of gentle and beautiful death reaches over defendant and marching death up to uncompromising and clarified death. In one handbook worth reading the music pieces are opened so that mourning music in completely new light appears.
The project singular on the music market, which was initiated by the board of trustees of the German funeral cultural association, member of FIAT-IFTA, could close a research gap in the music science in co-operation with the Robert Schumann university in Duesseldorf also. "Musica et Memoria "offers just as affecting as surprising listener life nit for all, which are interested vocationally or privately in mourning music - in music lovers just like for all those, which are responsible for the organization of funeral services.
Musica et memoria Mourning music by the centuries Funeral Music through the centuries
Düsseldorf 2005, 6 CD, running time: 360 minutes.
MANY OF OUR NATIONAL AND ASSOCIATE MEMBERS PUBLISH AND WORK IN THIS FIELD FOR MANY YEARS.
EXEMPLE III (awareness and consistency with the definition of safeguarding):
One of FIAT-IFTA's partners is ASCE: Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe. Actual President of ASCE: Mrs. Luiza Izaguirre Member of the FIAT-IFTA Funeral Heritage Advisory Committee ( see section 6c) promotes the awareness to safeguard the traditional craftmanship to preserve and maintain the European tradition of graveyards and gravestones in cooperation with many city councils and local authorities in Europe.
This is done for exemple by the publication of the book: Cemeteries of Europe - A Historical Heritage to Appreciate and Restore. A SCENE project by Mauro Felicori & Annalisa ZanottLPublished 2004
Creating awareness by publications and organizing meetings is one of the tasks of the FIAT-IFTA Funeral Heritage Advisory Committee.
FIAT-IFTA acts as an umbrella organization for financing and promoting the safeguarding and preservation of the Global Funeral Heritage:
FIAT-IFTA Charter of Funeral Heritage - Barcelona 2006
ALPAR Declaration of Funeral Heritage - Bogota 2010
Foundation by FIAT-IFTA of IAFM - International Association of Funeral Museums
FIAT-IFTA Conference on the Safeguarding and Preservation of Global Funeral Heritage, Düsseldorf, Germany 2010, Bogota, Colombia 2011 and Dublin, Ireland 2012
Publication of the biannual Funeral heritage Report
Annual meeting FIAT-IFTA Funeral heritage Steering Committee since 2006 in Chantilly, France
International Funeral heritage Expert Advisory Committee.
Activities:
Members of the FIAT-IFTA Funeral Heritage Advisory Committee:
1 - IRELAND, Name: Prof. Dr. Peter Harbison,Profession: M.RI.A., F.S.A. (Fellow Society of Antiquaries of London), H.R.H.A. (Hon. Member Royal Hibernian Academy), H.F.T.C.D.), Member, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.
Activities: History Professor, Member of Glasnevin Trust Board (National Cemetery of Ireland)
Publications: Has worked for many years as archaeologist. Honorary Academic Editor of the Royal Irish Academy, Honorary fellow of Trinity College, Dublin and an Honorary Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. He has written widely on Irish Art and archaeology, including Guide to Historical Monuments of Ireland (1970), The Archaeology of Ireland (1976), The High Crosses of Ireland (1992), Treasures of Ireland (2003) and a number of books on eighteenth century drawings of ancient Irish Monuments.
2 - FRANCE: Name: Mme Muriel Ghys:Profession et activités: Conseiller et formateur dans le secteur funéraire.Depuis 18 ans chargée des relations internationales au sein de AMFN, dont le but est de faire connaitre le patrimoine funéraire.
Compétences : Vingt ans d’expérience dans le domaine funéraire professionnellement, spécialiste du domaine des rituels funéraires et du deuil.
Publications: Petit Guide des Rites Funéraires - de nombreux articles dans la presse professionnelle
3 - GERMANY Name: Dr. Rolf Lichtner,Profession: Director of Kuratorium Deutsche Bestattungskultur eV.; Secretary General of Bundesverband Deutscher Bestatter; Director of Fachverlag des deutschen Bestattungsgewerbes GmbH
Activities: Responsible for conferences and seminars in Germany concerning funeral heritage; cooperation with and sponsorship for universities, museums for sepulcral culture and comparable institutions; publications for the funeral branch, e.c. mourning music
Publication(s): Author and/or publisher of numerous articles and books concerning all issues of funeral heritage
4 - RUSSIA Name: Dr. Sergey Yakushin, Profession: Funeral Director, Thanatologist, researcher University of Novosibirsk,
Activities: founder of Novosibrisk Crematorium, Novosibirsk Memorial Park, Museum of World Funeral Culture (Novosibirsk, Russia), publisher in Funeral Home Journal (All-Russia funeral magazine), Academician of European Academy of Natural Sciences, Member of the Artists Union of Russia,
Publications: Articles on Funeral Apparel an Attire and Russian Mourning Music in Funeral Home Journal, owner of the Russian Funeral Attire Collection
5 - LATIN AMERICA Name: Mr. Jorge Luis Tamayo Gaviria, Profession Economist UNAULA, Autonomous Latinamerican University, Colombia, Researcher University of Antioquia, Colombia
Activities: Founder and President of ALPAR, Latin American Association of Cemeteries and Funeral Services, 1988-2003 University Professor of Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, UNAULA and Universidad Cooperativa INDESCO, Specialist on Latinamerican Funeral Traditions
Board Member of:Parque Cementerio Jardines de la Esperanza (Manizales - Colombia),Parques Cementerio Jardines de Esperanza (Cucuta, Bucaramanga, Ocana - Colombia),
6 - PR of CHINA Name: Mr. Xin Bingyong, Director of the Longua Funeral Museum in Shanghai
Activities: Preservation of Foreign Funeral Sites in Shanghai
Publication: Catalogue of the collection of the Shanghai Longua Funeral Museum
7 - SPAIN Name: Mr.Fernando Sanchez Tulla, Profession: Director Museu de Carosses Funebres;
Activities: Funeral Services, Cremation, Cemeteries, Coffin Production and Repatriation. Member of EFFS (European Federation of Funeral Services) Funeral Culture Working Committee;
SPAIN Name: Ma Luisa Yzaguirre ,Profession: Current President ASCE (Associationi Significant Cemeteries of Europe) ;Publications: Articles about European cemeteries in specialist magazines, Lectures about funerary heritage in specialist exhibitions, (Valencia, Dusseldorf, Bologna, and Moscow),Lectures in specialist workshops in cemeteries and funerary heritage, Meetings and conferences with European Institute of Cultural Routes in order to get ready the European Cemeteries Route.
8 - CANADA Name; Mr. Yoland Tremblay, Directeur Cimetiere Notre Dame des Neiges and the preserved historique site of La Fabrique de la paroisse Notre Dame de Montreal.
Various publications on the subject.

EXEMPLES ILLUSTRATING EXPERIENCE IN SAFEGUARDING:
FIAT-IFTA promotes together with the French "Les Amis Du Musée Funéraire National" the founding of a French Funeral Museum in Paris in order to be able to exhibit among other artifacts the unique historic collection of "Faire Part de Décès et Cartes de Condoléance". At the moment this collection can not made accessible to the public because the French Funeral museum lacks exhibiting space and funds for the conservation of this collection. ## Ongoing activity started in 2008 ##
1978 the founding of the Shanghai Funeral Museum and financing of the archeological excavacations of historic Shanghai burial sites. Preservation of the funeral and burial customs in the region of Shanghai.
June 2002 organized by partner ASCE - Ass. of Significant Cemeteries in Europe: workshop to introuce a comparative approach concerning conservation and restoration techniques
June 2004 organized also by partner ASCE to create awareness: 'Week for Discovering Funeral Art in Cemeteries'
1995 Partner of FIAT-IFTA: Funeral Association Therebint: "Studies on Vanitas and Funeral Symbols and Burial Monuments.
Cooperation:
FIAT-IFTA as umbrella organization: Collaboration with and support of specialised organizations such as:
- Association 'De Terebinth Funeral Culture, The Netherlands ,Excursions, Newsletters, lobby activities with the government
- ASCE - Creation in 2001 of the European Cemeteries Route as a tourist itinerary. The significance of the European Cemeteries Route resides in its multicultural diversity and respectful approach of the dead. Cemeteries are part of our tangible heritage, for their works, sculptures and engravings. Likewise, cemeteries are part of our intangible heritage, of our anthropological reality, giving support to the environment surrounding the habits and practices related to death.
Lectures on: "Significant Cemeteries in front of new social habits" (Cremation, new kinds of graves, different cultures "by Javier Rodriguez Barberan (President of the Scientific Committee of the Cemeteries Route).
- National Funeral History Museum in Beckton, UK
- Exhibition 2010, Germany: "Schwermut und Schonheit, Trauerkleider"
- Permanent Exhibition and preservation by World Funeral museum in Novosibirsk of the Collection of Russian Funeral Costumes
- Exhibition of "Medaillons and Poems for the Deaths", Funeral Museum, Houston, USA
- Exhibition in Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Ancient Prints of the Last Journey of Napoleon; Preservation of the Collection Jol
Many publications in the FIAT-IFTA magazine: THANOS Magazine. Some exemples: Illustrations on Cinerary Urns in Japan, June 2007. Mortality and Rituals in Burma, October 2003. Traditional Burials in Sumba, Indonesian Island 2001
Publication by FIAT-IFTA member: Radbout Studies: 'Mortuary Rituals in the Netherlands', March 2009
FIAT-IFTA inventarises all these activities and aims to advise UNESCO on this specific field of Funeral Heritage.

Year of creation: 1964
Domain(s):

- oral traditions and expressions
- performing arts
- social practices, rituals and festive events
- traditional craftsmanship
- other
- scientific reflection on these domains

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- preservation, protection
- promotion, enhancement
- transmission, (non-)formal education
- revitalization

Objectives:
The International Society for Ethnology and Folklore—SIEF—is a pluridisciplinary organization centered in the twin fields of ethnology and folklore in their various denominations, within the larger family of anthropological and cultural-historical disciplines. The principal mission is to gather scholars from its fields; to provide platforms for critical debate, networking, and exchange; to build infrastructures for intellectual cooperation; to publish and promote excellent scholarship; and to move forward the fields that it represents. SIEF facilitates scholarly exchange in the community of ethnology, folklore and neighboring disciplines. It also serves as a forum for different professional worlds, bringing together researchers, teachers, students, archivists, as well as museum and heritage professionals. The society helps to raise public awareness of the scholarship they bring together and its societal relevance. It encourages the use of ethnological knowledge, skills, and perspectives in society at large to inform public opinion and inspire innovative solutions in a rapidly transforming world.
SIEF promotes academic freedom and the critical role of scholarship in society. SIEF members are active in critical heritage studies on the one hand. On the other hand they work in daily practice closely together with governmental bodies for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) as well as with the communities of ICH in its various domains. SIEF gives form to an intensive interaction between academia, ICH brokers or mediators and practitioners in daily life. SIEF also fosters academic debate on the impact of ICH and other policies on the ICH safeguarding processes, relying on research work carried out by its members and, through the platform of scholarly debates as well as larger public outreach, is encouraging exchange of various experiences and lessons learned in this regard.

Activities:
SIEF organizes biennial international congresses in odd-numbered years in cooperation with local organizers at academic institutions in various parts of Europe. SIEF has two affiliated scientific journals: Cultural Analysis (open access) and Ethnologia Europaea (open access after two years). It publishes a newsletter twice a year (open access) with practical information on the fields of ethnnology and folklore and activities of the society, its working groups and members. The newsletter also regularly covers some topical issues concerning the international debates on the implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003 Convention). SIEF hosts an elaborate website with current information on the society, its working groups, conferences, and publications. SIEF makes active use of social media and visual communication to provide its members and a broader public with the latest news in ethnology, folklore and intangible cultural heritage, with updates on the activities of the society, its working groups and members.
SIEF supports active working groups organized by SIEF members around scholarly topics and approaches. These working groups, fourteen altogether, organize panels or workshops at the biennial SIEF congresses and organize their own conferences in even-numbered years, also followed by prepared publications. In 2009, the working group 'Cultural Heritage and Property' was established focusing on the position and meanings of cultural heritage and cultural property on the different societal levels in the modern world and its nation states (see 8.a). In conferences organized by the working group, and publications prepared by its members, attention inter alia is given to the politics of cultural heritage and the consequences of the UNESCO 2003 Convention. The interest of the working group is also on the contested relation between tangible and intangible heritage from the perspective of transnational organizations of cultural politics, and on the entanglements of sociopolitical processes with economic reverberations. Members of this SIEF working group are active in critical heritage studies by publishing scientific and popular articles, giving presentations and organizing conferences and workshops, as well as participating in topical international debates on the implementation of the 2003 Convention (see 8.c).
In addition to its own activities, SIEF advocates extended international cooperation and partnerships, and cultivates a sisterhood with the American Folklore Society (AFS) and the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). SIEF members are participating in a number of internationally funded research projects on cultural heritage, to name some: 'CoHERE / Critical Heritages: performing and representing identities in Europe', 'Constitution of Cultural Property: Interdisciplinary Research Unit', 'Osmose / Intangible Cultural Heritage and Comparative Law', 'UNESCO Frictions: Heritage-making across global governance'.

Cooperation:
SIEF members have a great expertise in communicating and working with communities, groups and individual ICH practitioners, due to their profound engagement in fieldwork that entails sensitive interaction with people and their culture.
Through the dissemination of the research results the voice is given to local communities. Many SIEF members advocate for those societal groups that do not have access to the means of distribution of their knowledge and skills.
The diversity of experiences is great due to the fact that SIEF members are from nearly all countries of Europe and North America and represent interests in different domains, dealing with specific aspects of everyday culture and ICH.
Apart from the international perspective of SIEF, its members perform in plurifom networks on local, regional or national levels working closely together with communities in various ICH domains. SIEF members are also involved in establishment of national ICH inventories in many European countries (to give some examples, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, The Netherlands), as well as providing expertise for developing national and applying UNESCO set reporting mechanisms on ICH safeguarding. All this is carried out in close cooperation with communities.
SIEF thus provides a platform for exchanging experiences of interaction between academia interested in critical heritage studies and ICH practitioners, being aware that these are not reciprocally exclusive communities, and scholars are often bearers of diverse cultural traditions.

Year of creation: 1992
Domain(s):

- oral traditions and expressions
- performing arts
- social practices, rituals and festive events
- knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe
- traditional craftsmanship

Safeguarding measures:

- identification, documentation, research (including inventory-making)
- preservation, protection
- promotion, enhancement
- transmission, (non-)formal education
- revitalization

Main countries where active:

Netherlands

Objectives:
The main objective of the organization is stengthen popular culture and intangible heritage in het Netherlands. Our organization is subsidized by the Dutch government as the national institute for intangible heritage.
Activities:
Activities mainly center on promoting, inventorying, documentation, advising the Dutch government, reflection, strengthen local communities.

Additional information:

The Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur is a small professional organization. Most of the staff are professionally trained ethnologists/historians. The bureau is led by Ineke Strouken, a professional historian. We are a foundation which is subsidized by the Dutch government. The foundation is governed by a board.
The Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur has an advisory function to the Dutch government on all (policy) issues related to intangible heritage and folklore. As such we are subsidized by the Dutch government.
Our three main tasks are: promotion, raising awareness and strengthen local organizations and communities as bearers of local traditions and intangible heritage.
We organize theme years like ‘the year of tradition’, ‘the year of the circus’ and ‘the year of the intangible heritage’, as a way of raising awareness on special issues relating to intangible heritage.
In these theme years we cooperate with radio and television broadcasters. We organize with the help of our local organizations a broad array of activities, including manifestations, book publications, exhibitions etc. as a way of raising awareness.
We issue three magazines (Traditie is our popular magazine; Volkscultuur Magazine distributes news about our sector; Levend Erfgoed is the more scholarly review, with information and discussion about intangible heritage). Among the contributors/authors to our magazines are international renowned scholars like the Americans Simon Bronner and Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the Englishman David Hill and Dutch ethnologists like John Helsloot, Peter Jan Margry and Hester Dibbits.
We also have three websites in the air: www.nederlandscentrumvoorvolkscultuur.nl, www.volkscultuurplein.nl and www.jaarvanhetimmaterieelerfgoed.nl, this last website with information on our theme year of the intangible heritage. We document knowledge and information on Dutch culture and intangible heritage on our website www.volkscultuurplein.nl.
In cooperation with professional publishers we issue books about themes like ‘traditions in the Netherlands’, ‘carnival’, ‘circus’ etc. We also make travelling exhibitions on several subjects in the field of living heritage, which our local organizations can use in their local museums. For us it is a way to document these traditions.
As the Dutch government has indicated that the Netherlands will ratify the UNESCO convention on the intangible heritage, the Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur has made a start with inventorying intangible heritage in the Netherlands. Also we have started with a training program for local organizations and local communities on how to document and safeguard their intangible heritage.
Cooperation:
Mutual respect and cooperation with local communities is the basic rule and starting point for our organization.

Additional information:
We always cooperate with local communities and groups, for instance in our special theme years. In 2011 we have organized several expertmeetings for these local communities and groups with the intention of strengthening their capacities to manage and safeguard their intangible heritage.
Intangible heritage is interpreted as living heritage: living heritage of diverse groups and communities living in the Netherlands. This includes living heritage of local minority cultures as for instance the Frisians in the province of Friesland. But also the living heritage of ethnic minorities from for instance Turkey and Morocco who are living in the Netherlands.
The bureau is supported by a number of specialized experts from outside the organization. These experts are organized in so called knowledgegroups, who help and advise us on specialized subjects as ‘intangible heritage’, ‘local history’, ‘folklore’. ‘circus’ etc. These experts are asked by us to cooperate with us in these knowledgegroups because of their theoretical expertise on history or ethnology or because of their practical knowledge in the field, as bearers of tradition.
We have subdivided our field in a number of specialized areas, in total we support about 6000 (mostly) local organizations who work with intangible heritage.
We have a thorough knowledge on the diverse local groups and organizations in the Netherlands who you could describe as ‘custodians’ of traditions. These are mostly local organizations who organize popular feasts like for instance carnival or local processions or events which you could label as intangible heritage, for instance a religious procession or a local festivity. Also we are active in transmitting knowledge about intangible heritage to future generations. For this we have developed research manuals and educational projects, for instance on subjects as ‘traditions in daily life’ and on ‘children play and culture in the Netherlands’.