The Falles, Haros and Brandons celebrate the third anniversary of the Declaration of Intangible Heritage of UNESCO

The Chair works to define a safeguard model and supports the creation of an International Fallaire Association to maintain the tradition in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

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With regard to the objectives for the next year of the Chair of Education and Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Pyrenees, this entity of the University of Lleida (UdL) plans to implement fallaires suitcases in schools, as well as request a POCTEFA project together with universities from Spain, Andorra and France. Also, he wants to bet to become part of the UNESCO Chair, for the work he does in the field of cultural heritage.

Les Festes del Foc del Solsticis d'Estiu als Pirineus, also known as falles, haros and brandons, celebrates today the third anniversary of the Declaration of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The traditions that are part of the representative list of UNESCO are submitted every five years to an evaluation to verify that the party is still valid and that actions are being taken so that it is not lost as well as to demonstrate that it has not been perverted . For this reason, the Chair of Education and Intangible Heritage of the Pyrenees is working to finalize the definition and evaluation of a safeguard model for falles, haros and brandons and is committed to the creation of an International Fallaire Association, which provides for a commission to safeguard this tradition, according to its director, Sofía Isus.

In this sense, Marc Ballesté, postdoctoral researcher assigned to the Chair, explained that educational activities have been carried out to introduce the tradition fallaire to children. The design of educational suitcases about the Festa de Falles, Haros and Brandons is an example. It is a didactic material made up of six activities with which children know the party, and the symbols, values, nature and music that surround the festivity. With the suitcases, the students learn to differentiate the falles of each locality according to the type of bark or grass with which they are made; they deal with the language, such as Catalan, Castilian, Occitan, French or Ribagorzano; they learn the names of the districts, rivers and towns of the fallaires zones; They have the opportunity to create a solar simulator to understand the sun cycle as well as introduce themselves to different myths such as that of Ephesus, and learn the typical dances that are danced during the day of falles. Currently, this initiative has been presented to the associations fallaires and during this course a pilot test will be carried out with teachers from different schools.

Also in the field of education, the Chair participates in the Master of Communication of Cultural Heritage offered by the University of Lleida, which will begin next September, as well as its involvement in the Science Week with two workshops.

In terms of dissemination and promotion of heritage, considered a key in the preservation of intangible heritage, the Chair has carried out various actions such as the creation and dissemination of a calendar of falles, the promotion of an international fallaire meeting and a concert for commemorate the Declaration of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

It is worth noting his participation in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, commissioned by the Generalitat de Catalunya, held at the National Mall in Washington DC, where the falles tradition was introduced with activities, lectures, colloquiums and simulations of the descent of falles, to about a million people who passed through the National Park during the festival.