MEN, OXEN AND FLOWERS

Devotional Processions and Agrarian Ceremonies

MEN, OXEN AND FLOWERS

‘Men, oxen and flowers’ is a consortium of communities of festive and ceremonial practice united by devotional processions in which practitioners and custodians walk alongside cattle – cows, oxen or bulls – with carts or simple yokes, decorated or carrying floral or plant elements. The partnership agreement shared by these heritage communities aims to support and enhance the knowledge and minute practices underlying these ceremonies, the spaces and rural and urban landscapes where they take place, the animal and plant biodiversity and the knowledge of livestock breeding essential to the maintenance and reproduction of these animals that cooperate in the realisation of the ancient devotions and festivals celebrating an agrarian world that has been radically transformed today, but that in the memory of yesterday finds reasons and ways to remain in these places today, alternating generations between continuity and transformation. The ceremonials that meet recognise similarities and discontinuities, in a dialogue that identifies intangible heritage as one of the most powerful levers of the encounter between cultures and the relationship between man and nature as one of the crucial themes of the past and present.

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Organisation of in-person and online events for the interpretation, study and dissemination of the ceremonials taking part in the circuit; establishment of initiatives aimed at the preservation, inventory and valorisation of related practices and knowledge The ceremonials that meet recognise similarities and discontinuities, in a dialogue that identifies intangible heritage as one of the most powerful levers of the encounter between cultures and the relationship between man and nature as one of the crucial themes of the past and present.

Establishment of an International Network Consortium with the Spanish communities of the Autonomous Region of Andalusia and the devout parish groups of the State of Sanare, Trujllo and Mérida in Venezuela

Contribution of heritage communities to the presentation of the candidacy dossier for the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List

VISION

Organisation of in-person and online events for the interpretation, study and dissemination of the ceremonials taking part in the circuit; establishment of initiatives aimed at the preservation, inventory and valorisation of related practices and knowledge The ceremonials that meet recognise similarities and discontinuities, in a dialogue that identifies intangible heritage as one of the most powerful levers of the encounter between cultures and the relationship between man and nature as one of the crucial themes of the past and present.

MISSION

Establishment of an International Network Consortium with the Spanish communities of the Autonomous Region of Andalusia and the devout parish groups of the State of Sanare, Trujllo and Mérida in Venezuela

GOAL

Contribution of heritage communities to the presentation of the candidacy dossier for the UNESCO Intangible Heritage List

PARTNERS