People worldwide celebrate the 18th of April as World Heritage Day with great enthusiasm every year. Also popularly known as International Day for Monuments and Sites. The day is a reminder to promote and preserve the rich and diverse cultural heritage worldwide. You can dedicate your day to raising awareness, highlighting the value of rich cultural heritage, and encouraging them to appreciate and safeguard it for future generations. We, as a community, need to maintain historical sites and monuments across the globe.
The theme of World Heritage Day 2023 is “Heritage Changes.”
This year’s focus is on the urgency of climate action concerning cultural heritage.
Here are 10 innovative ideas to get involved in the activities of World Heritage Day:
1. Conduct “Swachtha Abhiyaan”: Plan Cleanliness drive with your friend/volunteers at any nearby World Heritage site in your neighbourhood.
2. Invite like-minded people: Make like minded people share stories, pictures, and videos of the sites they have visited so far. Hearing each other’s experiences and getting valuable insights would be so enriching. A list of new World Heritage sites for subsequent discussion can be made on the spot.
3. Garden party: Arrange a garden party for young ones and let them enjoy the virtual tour of the famous UNESCO World Heritage Sites playing on the projector.
4. Enjoy a rickshaw, or Baggi ride to explore the older city: Spend some quality time and immerse yourself in the charm of ancient temples, old forts, high minarets, and the wall carvings of mosques. You can also generate some employment for rickshaw pullers.
5. Document: Write a the local traditions, the people, and their way of life and prepare an exciting post for your blog. Or make an informative video to share on social media to spread the message.
6. Participate in a heritage walk: Find out heritage walk expert (or community) and say yes to the guided tour! Join others to explore the lesser-known marvels and stories of your city.
7. Organize heritage-themed games in your workplace: A sure-shot way to increase awareness about the day’s significance, motto, and objectives.
8. Conduct a Pot luck party having dishes from grandma’s cuisine: Imagine all your guests bringing one regional word from their grandma’s traditional treasure! Enjoy the blast of flavors and ingredients from all over the region.
9. Create any piece of art with slogans and a message to come forward for a cause: Write, read, share, talk, paint, cook, walk, dance, cycle, run with posters, and run a social media campaign but Do something.
10. Help raise funds for a heritage preservation project: You can do this by doing charity or Volunteering for a heritage preservation project in your community to help preserve the cultural heritage for future generations.
Hope the above ideas will inspire you to have a meaningful celebration with your community. Which one did you find most exciting? Share it with your friends to help reach more people.
Happy World Heritage Day 2023!!!