Organized at the "Casa Romanței" Museum in Targoviste by the Alumnus Club and the Cultural Association “Citadel of Romance” , under the auspices of the European and North American Federation of Associations and Clubs for UNESCO, the president Ioannis Maronitis being present, conference – debate “Heritage and Future – UNESCO 80”
it represented a moment of great depth and feeling, offering the opportunity for an authentic reflection on the actuality of Romanian romance, bringing into discussion the admission file in the List of Intangible Heritage.
An attempt was made to focus on the identity roots of this people honed through song and word, thus celebrating the Intangible Cultural Heritage Day (17 October) and the anniversary of 80 years since the founding of UNESCO (1945–2025)
Every year, on the date of 17 October, Romania celebrates Intangible Cultural Heritage Day – a day dedicated to intangible values that define the spirit of a nation: the traditions, rites, oral expressions, crafts and knowledge passed down from generation to generation.
It is a moment of reflection on how the past lives on in the present and on the responsibility we have in preserving and revitalizing these forms of cultural expression.
Intangible cultural heritage cannot be preserved in a showcase. He lives in people, in communities, in everyday gestures, in songs, in dances and stories. It is fragile, but that's why it's valuable. He does not belong to an elite, but it is the common heritage of those who practice it, I cherish it and pass it on.
This national holiday is coming, in 2025, in a context with a special load: UNESCO, United Nations Educational Organization, Science and Culture, marchează 80 years of. Since 1945, UNESCO has positioned itself as the guarantor of cultural diversity and peace built on mutual understanding, dialogue and knowledge.
By adopting the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003, UNESCO has recognized the importance of forms of culture that are not necessarily visible or tangible, but which plays an essential role in shaping collective identities. The Convention provided an international framework to protect and promote these cultural expressions, encouraging Member States to document, to sustain and pass on what communities define as an integral part of their own heritage.
For Romania, this convention represented not only an opportunity for international validation of traditional cultural values, but also a call to internal awareness: without the involvement of communities, no respect for tradition bearers, intangible heritage risks dying out in silence.
In the context of accelerated globalization and increasingly rapid social transformations, intangible heritage is the bridge between generations. It is a source of cultural stability, an identity education tool and a living space of creativity.
Day 17 October is not a simple commemoration of the past, but an exhortation to continuity.
It is a call addressed to young people, institutions, schools and the whole society: to rediscover tradition not as an ornament, but as a foundation. Let us understand that protecting heritage is not a nostalgic action, but a form of assuming the future.
Today, the 80 years since the creation of UNESCO, we reaffirm a simple truth, but essential: without living heritage, there is no collective memory. And no memory, a culture cannot last.
