Due to the uncertainties caused by the Covid-pandemic, the news passed silently, but the organisation behind the European Heritage Days have recently presented the 2021 theme for the event: Heritage All-Inclusive! This year, the Heritage Days underscore the aspect of inclusivity and diversity in experiencing heritage.
Heritage has a inert ability to bring people together over shared history and shared interests. The Heritage Days are the finest example of this and have brought hundreds of thousands of people together to celebrate en enjoy the most inspiring sites together throughout Europe.
However, diversity and inclusion of minorities have been lacking. This in a way that saw the European Commission see fit to address the issue and enticed organisations and sites to make sure that their activities include as many different people as possible. With the introduction of this year’s theme, the Heritage Days are showing that they’ve but the direction at heart and vow to make a difference.
The European Heritage Days (EHD) are a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Commission. They have been a mainstay since 1999 and are the most widely celebrated participatory cultural event in Europe.
The pan-European nature of the EHD programme contributes to bringing citizens together and highlighting the European dimension of cultural heritage in the 50 signatory States of the European Cultural Convention.
In previous years, the event organised around the end of October attracted up to 30 million visitors through locally organised events. Last year, the event was moved online, but this year’s format hasn’t been announced yet.
Please visit the website of the European Heritage Days here to view all the activities which have been planned for this year.
Read more about this year’s theme here.
View our other articles about the European Heriage Days (including news from previous years) here.