Our heritage in the hands of the future: how children will discover traditional knowledge and skills along the Krka River

On the occasion of the European Heritage Day, the Public Institute of Krka National Park has organized an educational program dedicated to the cultural and ethnographic heritage found along the Krka River. The program will be held on October 3 at Skradinski buk waterfall.

The Krka National Park is participating in this year’s European Heritage Days celebration with a program called "Our Heritage in the Hands of the Future", to be held on Saturday, October 3, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Skradinski buk waterfall. The program includes a workshop for children aged six to eleven, where they can learn about the traditional knowledge and skills associated with the Krka River and the way of life along its banks. The program is free of charge, and children must be accompanied by at least one parent. As the number of participants is limited, registration is required via the following Google form. 

With expert guidance and an educational workshop, children will be introduced to part of the rich cultural-historical and ethnographic heritage of the Krka National Park, and further discover how the area's former inhabitants lived and worked, as well as the various ways they utilized the natural resources surrounding them.

The program begins with a tour of the restored watermills at Skradinski buk, where traditional crafts and skills are demonstrated – such as grain milling, weaving, and blacksmithing. Children can thus discover the role such structures played in people's daily lives in the past, and learn more about the centuries-long coexistence between the Krka River and the people who lived along its banks.

Following the tour of the watermills, an educational workshop dedicated to sheep wool processing and the art of traditional weaving will be held. Participants will discover the journey of wool from fleece to finished product, and learn how sukno (heavy wool cloth) was processed in the past, as well as the role fulling mills played in that process. The art of weaving was once an important part of daily life, passed down from generation to generation within families and the community.

Following the workshop, participants will be able to enjoy a performance by the "Miljevci" Cultural and Artistic Association, which for many years has been sharing the sounds of the rocky plains bordered by the Krka and Čikola rivers with the world through the traditional ojkavica singing and the circle dances of the Miljevac Plateau region.

The goal of the program is to introduce children to the features of both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and to foster an understanding of the importance of its preservation. By exploring traditional skills and knowledge, young people can see that the heritage is a living legacy that can and must be preserved for the future, through transmission from one generation to the next.

The "Heritage in the Hands of the Future" program is part of the European Heritage Days events, launched by the Council of Europe; since 1999, it has been carried out as a joint initiative of the Council of Europe and the European Union. Croatia joined the observance of this event in 1995. European Heritage Days are celebrated in September and October with numerous programs designed to bring the cultural heritage closer to the public.

The theme of this year's European Heritage Days is "The endangered heritage: revitalization, resilience, new interpretations", which emphasizes the need to find new ways of preserving, presenting and passing on the cultural heritage to future generations.