Multinational file Art of National Shirt of Moldova, Romania submitted to UNESCO

Chisinau, 29 March /MOLDPRES/ - The multinational file, Art of National Shirt – element of cultural identity in Romania and Moldova, has been submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the registration in Representatives List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the Culture Ministry of Romania has informed, the AGERPRES news agency has reported, quoted by MOLDPRES.     

The file on nomination will be assessed at the 17th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage due in November/December 2022.  

The file was made with the participation of national groups of experts from Romania and Moldova, with its elaboration being coordinated by the Culture Ministry of Romania.   

In 2020-2021, experts from the two countries carried out a sustained activity of documentation, research, filming and repertoire of the bearers of competences from more zones. The goal was to follow the evolution and viability of the techniques of making the national shirt in the current rural and urban communities from Romania and Moldova.    

The documents included in the UNESCO candidacy file shows the complexity of the problems related to this element, which comprises the following aspects: local/regional names of the element and the area of manifestation, pointing out the make and typology of the national shirt, the spread of the element.    

The file comprises the viability of the element at present and presents the spread of the practices and techniques dealing with the sewing and wearing of national shirts. The file unveils the etymology of the word ‘’altita’’ (ornamental portion) the element’s regional diversity, with mentioning the raw materials, working tools, make, ways of structuring the ornamental work, of the decorative motives, of their plastic treatment and chromatics. A special place was given to the presentation of the social and cultural elements associated with the national shirt, its communication duty, current state of the element, as well as to the general degree of its protection, preservation and safeguarding, with general and punctual measures. The comparative study as to the raw materials, types of make, structure, ornamental work, ornaments and chromatics was made geographically and temporally.    

"The researches of the ethnographic zones of manifestation of the national shirt showed its spread at present in Moldova, Bucovina, Oltenia, Muntenia and Southern Transylvania and provided significant details on the living existing of the element. The document signals the continuity of the national shirt on the territory of Romania and in Moldova from beyond the Prut river, significant for its defining as identify mark meant to ensure the cohesion and affiliation,’’ the Romanian Culture Ministry said.   

At the same time, the file contains measures and strategies of preservation, protection and safeguarding of the element, as well as risks in connection with the element and probationers.  

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