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Spring Festival takes place world-wide after UNESCO formal recognition

Ross Cullen in Paris

01:45

The Spring Festival is always vibrant, from the magic of the lion dances and the dragons coursing through the air to the rhythmic beat of the drummers.

But the 2025 spectacle is the first festival to take place under a special banner of protection from UNESCO.

The Spring Festival has now officially been included on the United Nations' List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. 

"It's an element that is not only important for China, but also for Chinese around the world," said Ernesto Ottone, UNESCO's assistant director-general for culture.

"Somehow, even in Paris, New York and other cities, you have the celebration of the Spring Festival all around the world so there's a lot of community practice everywhere in the world."

Lion dancing is a key element of Chinese New Year celebrations. /Li Yang/China News Service
Lion dancing is a key element of Chinese New Year celebrations. /Li Yang/China News Service

Lion dancing is a key element of Chinese New Year celebrations. /Li Yang/China News Service

UNESCO officials say China has also demonstrated its intention to protect the festival's cultural identity in the future.

"To be inscribed the member states, the communities, have to prove that there is a plan of safeguarding this for future generations," said Ottone.

The Year of the Snake becomes the first Lunar New Year to be celebrated after being written into UNESCO's catalogue of intangible cultural heritage.

Intangible cultural heritage is a form that cannot be touched or stored physically but experienced through expression.

Music, dance, festivals and cuisine are examples, and all of those are very important during the Spring Festival.

According to UNESCO, the Spring Festival strengthens family values and social cohesion.   

The Intangible Heritage list recognises not only customs of cultural importance in the past, but those - like the Spring Festival - that have a connection to the present-day as well.

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