What do the Karadag snake and the embroidery of the Crimean Tatars have in common? Both are included in the register of objects of intangible ethnocultural heritage of Crimea. There are currently 12 such objects, but new ones may appear soon. What are these objects, who identifies them — in the material RIA Novosti Crimea.
Intangible cultural heritage is the practices, representations and expressions, knowledge, skills and associated objects and cultural spaces recognized by communities (not necessarily ethnic ones) as part of their cultural heritage. Such intangible cultural heritage creates a sense of identity and respect for cultural diversity and must be preserved and passed on to future generations. A similar form of preserving objects of intangible cultural heritage exists at the global level, it is formed by UNESCO. The list of this international organization includes flamenco of Spain, the Mediterranean diet, sand paintings of the peoples of Oceania and more than 600 dances, rituals, customs…
At the Center for Folk Art of the Republic of Crimea there is a department of intangible cultural property (NKD). Employees of this department search and determine which of the rituals and traditions existing in Crimea may be an object of intangible cultural heritage. There is a similar register at the federal and all-Russian level.
A Moscow expedition from among representatives of the State Russian House of Folk Art named after. Polenova. They helped us with conducting a folklore and rural expedition to include two Crimean sites in the federal register of OKN. It was family tradition of the Crimean Tatar ensemble Zinadinovs and the tradition of the Feodosian Karaites, Agha-Dumpa holidaysays the head of the department, Pavel Ermolenko.
After the existence of the OKN registry, he explains the long state path, a federal law was issued No. 402which outlined the creation of a register of objects of intangible cultural heritage. The lists began to be compiled anew, and the objects were systematized, as they say, from the bottom up: first at the level of municipalities, then of a particular region or republic, then they are submitted to the “federal level.” The Folk Art Center is the operator of the Crimean Republican Register of Intangible Property Objects.
With the release of the new law, the Karaite ritual was not included in the new register. But in addition to these two objects, the year before last we submitted several more objects to the federal register: traditions of concluding a marriage contract Shetar among the Karaites, traditions associated with fishing and consumption Kerch herringholiday of the Greeks of Chernopolye Panair and tradition Crimean Tatar embroidery, – says the head of the department.
In order for everything to be verified and recorded, Crimean specialists conducted joint folklore expeditions with specialists from Moscow, who come to this or that region once every two years. Now Crimea is waiting for a verdict.
Crimean chip
At the republican level, there is a special commission that includes objects of intangible ethnocultural heritage in the republican list. In 2025 included Mazan clay preparation technologythe tradition of hoisting Victory Banner to the mountain peaks of Yalta and the city of Feodosia the legend of the Karadag snake.
Applications can be sent to us either by the department of cultural management in municipalities or, in principle, by anyone — public organizations and individuals. A lot of people send us applications— the interlocutor admits.
Not every ritual, legend or tradition can claim the status of an object of intangible cultural property. Firstly, he must be at least 40 years old, and secondly, he must have a Crimean peculiarity, that is, something that distinguishes him from similar ones in other regions of Russia. And the degree of preservation is important — a tradition or legend should not be distorted or distorted minimally over the years.
For example, the hoisting of the Victory Banner on Ai-Petri. This is our Crimean trick. The tradition is more than 40 years old, it was born from the Great Patriotic War, there was a story when one of the Crimean partisans, being a climber, hoisted the Soviet banner on the top. The custom was revived after the war by mine rescuers. In Moscow, they were very inspired by our story, by the way.says Pavel Ermolenko.
In Crimea, it is difficult to identify significant objects of intangible cultural heritage worthy of registering. It is necessary to clearly distinguish that, for example, some dish is a material object, but the method of preparing it and the songs with which it is prepared is precisely an object of intangible culture.
There is also a lot of controversy here, because in Crimea the cultures are very intertwined, they coexisted together and influenced each other. Several peoples consider the same chebureks and their recipe to be theirs. Our task is not to harm, not to distort information, not to offend anyone. Therefore, we try to better not introduce such objects at all, rather than enter them incorrectly, – explains the head of the department of the Folk Art Center.
Become an asset
Some objects are now being “finalized”; there are many bureaucratic nuances to bring an object to the federal level: folklore expeditions, correct paperwork, media content, and with it documents on the protection of copyright and personal data of those who are the bearer of this object are needed, and a lot of other nuances and pieces of paper.
The life of a simple folklorist is hard and unprepossessing,” Ermolenko jokes. — Until now, at the federal level, even among museum workers, there is still no clear understanding of how to store intangibles and how to museumize them.
There were also those objects of intangible cultural heritage under consideration that the commission rejected. For example, the traditions of the holiday, which is also celebrated by the Crimean Bulgarians — Trifon Zarezan, the day of the first spring pruning of the vine.
The commission sent it for revision to find out how the Crimean Trifon Zarezan differs from the general Bulgarian tradition. According to the first, when Law No. 402 Federal Law was adopted, many regions began to introduce Maslenitsa or towns. How does the celebration of Maslenitsa differ in Voronezh from its celebration in the Urals? There must be a clear regional featureexplains the folklorist.
Pavel Ermolenko also recalls funny incidents when submitting applications. For some reason, many are sure that being on the list will result in government payments or privileges; some simply crave fame.
Once a Crimean bard wrote a complaint against us to the president (!), who really wanted us to include his songs in the register. But we are obliged to process all requests by the commission, even such ridiculous onesthe interlocutor recalls.
But among the chaff there are also unique grains. So Pavel Ermolenko encourages people to send applications no matter what. In the process of work there are cases , surprising for experienced ethnographers.
The Black Polish Greeks have a holiday called Panair, and many people already know about it. But this holiday is preceded by the ritual of “dressing” the icons: grandmothers sing ritual songs, remove special clothes from the icons and put on new ones. These are not icon frames, these are just clothes made of fabric — there is a lower one, there is an upper one. This ceremony takes place six times a year. It seems to be Greek history, but it has a lot of Crimean features. This tradition may well qualify for inclusion in the lists,” Pavel Ermolenko gave an example.
Now this ritual, along with others, is waiting for its own separate special ethnographic expedition and full procedure in order to become a documented object of the intangible ethnocultural heritage of Crimea.
source: RIA Novosti Crimea
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