Egypt’s Iconic Puppet, El Aragoz, Makes It to UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage
Once again, Egypt made it to UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage that requires safeguarding and preservation. This time our traditional hand puppetry, as known as our iconic ‘El Aragoz’, was the Egyptian heritage pride that took us to the list.
According to the UNESCO, the Intangible Cultural Heritage consists of all sorts of cultural traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, and so on. Egypt was lucky to join the list first in 2008 with its Al-Sirah Al-Hilaliyya epic. Later on, in 2016, we joined again with the traditional stick-fighting martial art commonly known as ‘Tahtib’ in Arabic.
As reported by Albawaba, the Minister of Culture, Enas Abdel Dayem, said that “listing the Egyptian tradition is a new step towards the preservation of Egypt’s intangible popular heritage and identity.” She also mentioned that “Egyptian heritage is rich with other items that the ministry is seeking to register on UNESCO’s list in the coming period.”
