Overview
The Venezuelan Saint John the Baptist celebrations feature practices and knowledge that originated in the eighteenth century in Afro-Venezuelan communities associated with former colonial estates. From the beginning, the festivities have been heavily influenced by Catholicism, but they are also rich in verbal, musical and physical expressions connected to sub-Saharan Africa. For followers, called Sanjuaneros, the celebration is a symbol of cultural resistance and freedom, and a means of remembering their enslaved ancestors. In many communities, the festivities start in early May. They are characterized by joyful drumming, dancing, storytelling and singing and by processions with a statue of Saint John the Baptist. Each community has its own form of dancing and singing. The exact dates of the festivities vary from one region to the next, but the most important dates are 23 and 24 June....
This record is imported from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage public dataset as discovery metadata. ARED has not independently verified community authority, access protocols or local naming beyond the source record.
Community and Authority
- Communities
- Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
- Languages
- Not specified in UNESCO dataset
- Cultural territories
- Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
- Countries
- Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
How the System Works
The Venezuelan Saint John the Baptist celebrations feature practices and knowledge that originated in the eighteenth century in Afro-Venezuelan communities associated with former colonial estates. From the beginning, the festivities have been heavily influenced by Catholicism, but they are also rich in verbal, musical and physical...
Sources and Evidence
Imported from UNESCO DataHub dataset ich001. Field-level provenance is retained in the record metadata.
Field-Level Provenance
- title
- UNESCO DataHub field title_en
- preferredTitle
- UNESCO DataHub field title_fr
- summary
- UNESCO DataHub field description_en
- type
- UNESCO DataHub fields type_of_element_en and type_acronym
- countries
- UNESCO DataHub field countries, ISO codes resolved with ISO-3166 regional metadata
- categories
- ARED category inference from UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names and title
- relationships
- UNESCO concepts_primary_names, concepts_secondary_names, type fields and World Heritage links
- sourceUrl
- UNESCO DataHub field http_url_en
- rights
- UNESCO DataHub dataset metadata license and license_url
Original Source Metadata
Why This Record Is Credible
This public record is connected to 1 source and has been labelled Source Supported. ARED separates evidence sources from cultural authority so users can see both provenance and review limits.
Cultural Access
Use this as public discovery metadata only. It does not replace community authority or local access protocols.
Relationships
Review and Corrections
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