World Handicraft Day: when to celebrate, history, photos

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Since handicrafts have become fashionable again and wearing handmade accessories has become prestigious, craftswomen are proud of their creations and celebrate World Handicraft Day with pleasure.

When is World Crafts Day celebrated?

World Handicraft Day is an unofficial holiday. Since UNESCO equated handicrafts with cultural heritage, the date chosen was November 16, the day of the creation of UNESCO. Since this organization protects unique crafts, its birthday began to be considered the day of handicrafts. It is usually celebrated either by the individual creation of a new masterpiece, or by a group of needlewomen creating something thematic, and then all the craftswomen work on the masterpiece.

Handicrafts are considered to be embroidery, knitting, sewing and making jewelry. Handmade is any thing that is created manually using traditional technologies.This can be crafts made from paper (origami, quilling), from felt (felting), from metal and stones (forging, jewelry making), from wood (cutting wood, burning, barrel making), wickerwork, leather work, artistic crafts and more. Over time, losing relevance, the craft is forgotten, and then it is impossible to restore lost skills.

World Handicraft Day: the history of the holiday

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At first glance, the popularity of handicrafts is growing day by day: magazines and online publications dedicated to unique handmade trends are appearing, exhibitions and fairs are being held. Major fashion houses took embroidery and handmade lace as the basis for their couture dresses. All the unique masterpieces that fashion historians talk about were created by hand, using ancient techniques of lace weaving or pearl embroidery.

Today, according to UNESCO, about 200 crafts are considered lost. In museums you can see wooden barrels and wheels made without a single nail. But it is no longer possible to repeat the creation process; the technology is lost.

This also applies to the creation of fabric, lace, unique jewelry technologies have been lost, and much more.

Therefore, UNESCO in 1975 adopted a convention on the intangible cultural heritage, which includes handicrafts and crafts. Representatives of the organization travel all over the world, trying to sponsor museums, galleries and craftsmen who are trying to preserve traditional crafts and technologies.

Therefore, the choice of the day of the creation of UNESCO can be considered World Handicraft Day and celebrated by mastering a new direction of handmade.