Bear festivities in the Pyrenees | Global Knowledge Systems

Overview

The Bear festivities take place every winter in five villages in the Pyrenees mountain range located in Andorra and France. During the event, young men dress up as bears and run through the streets trying to catch participants. The festivities are punctuated by dances, speeches in Catalan and music. The entire local population takes part, hunting the bears and welcoming the spectators. Although the style varies from one village to the next, the scenario remains the same and symbolizes the end of winter, spring rebirth (with the bear waking up from hibernation) and the relationship between humans and nature. After a decline in popularity in the 1960s, the festivities have regained popularity over the last thirty years. People of all ages and backgrounds participate to different degrees, by helping with the organization, playing roles, singing or taking part in the chases. The Bear...

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: Andorra, France
Languages: Not specified in UNESCO dataset
Cultural territories: Andorra, France
Countries: Andorra, France

How the System Works

Music, Performance and Oral Literature Food, Agriculture and Seasonal Practice Ceremony, Spirituality and Cosmology Land, Sea, Sky and Ecology Ways of Knowing and Knowledge Transmission

Sources and Evidence

Imported from UNESCO DataHub dataset ich001. Field-level provenance is retained in the record metadata.

UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage ListsDataset

Open original source record

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

uuidc1582623-92ac-4137-9c8c-fe624fccbf91

ich_public_ref1846

inscription_year2022

title_enBear festivities in the Pyrenees

title_frLes fêtes de l’Ours dans les Pyrénées

type_of_element_enRepresentative List

type_acronymRL

countriesAD, FR

http_url_enhttps://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/01846

concepts_primary_namesCostumes, Festivity, Masks, Theatre

concepts_secondary_namesAudience participation, Dance, Family, Humour (literary), Initiation rites, Musical performances, Nonformal education, Periodic element, Seasonal ritual, Social criticism, Social gathering, Vocal music

main_image_urlhttps://ich.unesco.org/img/photo/thumb/15740-LRG.jpg

main_image_caption_enNot supplied

main_image_copyrightJoan Torres Salvador, 2020

main_image_authorNot supplied

videoshttps://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/uk0gNlGMzeg

images[object Object], [object Object], [object Object]

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

Costumes Festivity Masks Theatre Audience participation Dance Family Humour (literary)Initiation rites Musical performances Nonformal education Periodic element UNESCO representative list

Review and Corrections

If this record misstates authority, access, naming, language, source context or community preference, please request a review.

Suggest correction