Overview
The Feast of the Holy Forty Martyrs takes place every year on 22 March, honouring the fourth-century martyrs of Sebaste and marking the first day of spring. Participants gather on the streets and in the squares of Štip, and then hike up the Isar hill, stopping en route at the church to pay tribute to the Holy Forty Martyrs. During the climb – according to tradition – the participants must greet forty acquaintances and gather forty pebbles as well as forty flowers or twigs from the almond trees that grow nearby. On reaching the top, the participants make wishes and throw thirty-nine pebbles into the Bregalnica River below. The remaining pebble is kept and placed under the pillow before going to sleep. Musical bands play on the hill throughout the day. The feast is transmitted through parents hiking with their children, or older relatives and friends handing down the tradition to the...
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
- North Macedonia
- Languages
- Not specified in UNESCO dataset
- Cultural territories
- North Macedonia
- Countries
- North Macedonia
How the System Works
The Feast of the Holy Forty Martyrs takes place every year on 22 March, honouring the fourth-century martyrs of Sebaste and marking the first day of spring. Participants gather on the streets and in the squares of Štip, and then hike up the Isar hill, stopping en route at the church to pay tribute to the Holy Forty Martyrs. During the...
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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