It is summer and vacation time. But, during the school year the Heritage Hubs project was presented to and shared among students from Spain, Finland and Serbia. The point? To learn about each other’s history and take part in traditions and celebrations from other countries. The Heritage Hubs is another example of Spain’s efforts and commitment to preserving its heritage. And Spain has won more prestigious European awards than any other country. Until 5 September, you can vote for your favorites among 24 exciting conservation and dissemination projects for Europa Nostra’s «People’s Jury Prize».
The winners in 2021 came from a total of 18 countries, and you will find both individuals and large projects among them – from an almost 80-year-old Italian woman who makes the most exquisite lace, to a large-scale project to restore the park at Fredensborg Castle in Denmark. This year, five of the winning projects were from Spain and won awards in the categories of Conservation, Research, Dedicated service and Education, training and awareness-raising.
What is your story?
History not only shapes society, each and every one of us humans think and act – consciously and often unconsciously – based on the historical context of which we are a part. The fifth of this year’s Europa Nostra awards for 2021 with a Spanish winner is a project aimed at making children and young people more aware of the history that characterizes the society they are part of and how it can be perceived from the outside.
The pilot project, which lasted two years, involved students aged 10-16 and their teachers from Finland, Serbia and Spain. The students got to know each other over the Internet and through exchange visits. They were given the task of presenting a concrete example of their own cultural heritage, for example an important celebration, and then present it to young people from the other two countries.
The youngsters from the “outside” countries were then given the task of presenting the culture of the other two countries – seen through their eyes – to the “insiders”. The young people experienced that a celebration that for them was a natural part of the course of the year, with few questions asked, could be perceived quite differently from the outside.
An example that the young people took for granted was the celebration of Slava – the most important holiday of the year for most Serbian families. Slava is a central part of Serbian identity whether you live in Serbia or other parts of the world – the holiday celebrates the family’s patron saint which is inherited in the male line and is therefore at all times determined by the male head of the family.
The young people from Finland and Spain are hardly the only ones who were unfamiliar with the Slava celebration. When presented to it, they interpreted it quite differently: Secular Finnish youth understood it from a Protestant Christian background where saints have barely had a place since Martin Luther and yet they found similarities with the Nordic Lucia celebration. Spanish youth are part of a society that has had saints and saint worship for generations, yet they perceived the Slava holiday in quite a different way than the Serbian students.
The award-winning project, called Heritage Hubs, has also resulted in a handbook and an e-learning platform for use in school education. Eight hundred teachers have been instructed in how they can use the program to provide children and young adults a greater understanding of their own and other people’s history and culture.
You can read more about Heritage Hubs here: https://www.facebook.com/HeritageHubs/.
The People’s Jury: Vote for your favorites
But the last of the Europa Nostra Prizes for 2021 has not yet been awarded. Until 5 September 2021, you can help decide which of the 24 prize winners will be awarded the People’s Jury Prize for this year’s best European conservation project. You can find a presentation of the candidates and can vote here: https://vote.europanostra.org/.
You must vote on three projects, but only one from each country. You give three points to your favorite project, two to what you think is the second-best and one point to your third and final candidate. Following your vote on Europa Nostra’s website, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your vote. On 23 September, the winner of this year’s People’s Jury Prize will be announced. Do you have a Spanish favorite for this prize?
PS: The Europa Nostra prize, which is supported by the EU, is awarded to projects that, in an excellent but quite different way, safeguard Europe’s common cultural heritage. This year it’s 19th year and no country has more of the awards than Spain.
Find Your Spain!
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