Cultural Heritage Year

The Cultural Heritage Year as well as the tenth anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage adopted by the UNESCO General Conference on 17 October 2003, which entered into force from June 2006, will be marked in Estonia by the issue of a thematic postage stamp. The aim of the heritage year is to make the people aware and to interpret cultural heritage among the wide public, both among young and old people. The scope of the year is wide and it embraces both isolated cultural monuments, as well as intangible heritage, including that of minority groups. Another aim of the year is that once the Heritage Year is over, we would be able see cultural heritage daily around us and feel that it is a part and the basis of our identity. And as culture has been created by the people also the Heritage Year mainly focuses on them. The main events marking the Heritage Year will focus on the south-eastern Seto area, and the Seto singing tradition which was proclaimed as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2009. The stamp will certainly be a bow to the world-wide Seto Kingdom Day, which will this year mark its 20th anniversary on Määsi Hill at Luhamaa.