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EveryParampara

Music, dance and storytelling

Songs, dances, theatre, epic poetry and oral history.

Music, dance and storytelling traditions are the performances that a community passes down by ear, eye and heart: the epic poem recited by a griot, the dance in a circle at a wedding, the shadow play of Java, the ballad of a village, the lullaby of a grandmother. They carry history, law and humour in forms that people can remember. Many are linked to festivals and rites, and many are on UNESCO's lists of intangible heritage. Here they are gathered by country, with notes on who performs them and when.

Songs and dances of the people

Folk music and dance are community property: they are learnt by joining in, not by lessons, and they change a little with every generation. Circle dances, line dances and couple dances accompany harvests and weddings, and instruments such as the drum, the fiddle, the pipe and the lute are made locally. In many places, there are separate songs for work, for love, for mourning and for children, and each has its own time and place.

Stories and theatre

Oral storytelling holds a society's memory: epics, myths, fables, proverbs and riddles told by elders. Some become formal theatre, such as kabuki and noh in Japan, wayang in Indonesia, the mumming plays of Britain or the Ramlila of India, which retells the Ramayana in a month of evenings. These forms often depend on one master teaching one student, and communities and governments now support them to keep them alive.

About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Music, dance and storytelling (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

RegionSouth AsiaSoutheast AsiaEast AsiaCentral Asia and the CaucasusMiddle EastNorth AfricaSub-Saharan AfricaEuropeNorth AmericaLatin America and the CaribbeanOceania
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast
🇱🇹 Vilnius, LithuaniaLithuanian Song FestivalLietuvių dainų ir šokių šventė A periodic national festival of choral singing, dance and folklore in LithuaniaFestival 🇩🇴 Santiago, Dominican Republic and 3 moreMerengue A fast-paced folk dance and music tradition born in the Dominican RepublicPerformance 🇨🇴 Valledupar, ColombiaVallenato Legend FestivalFestival de la Leyenda Vallenata An annual gathering in Valledupar celebrating Colombian vallenato music and verseFestival 🇬🇭 GhanaPanafest A biennial Ghanaian festival uniting Africans and the diaspora through arts and healingFestival 🇮🇷 Iran and 5 moreDutarدوتار A long-necked lute crafted from wood and played across Iran and Central AsiaPerformance 🇩🇴 Santo Domingo, Dominican RepublicDominican Carnival A February street festival of masks, music and parades across the Dominican Republic.Festival 🇨🇦 Canada and 2 moreMummering A festive midwinter custom of disguised visits, music and playful guessing gamesFestival · Tea-time and snacking customs 🇺🇦 Kyiv, UkraineVertepвертеп A two-tiered Ukrainian puppet theatre that mixes the nativity story with satirical comedy and folk music.Performance 🇵🇭 Bacolod, PhilippinesMassKara FestivalPista sang MassKara A street festival of smiling masks, parades and music in Bacolod, PhilippinesFestival 🇺🇸 Philadelphia, United StatesMummers Parade An annual New Year's Day street parade in Philadelphia featuring music and costumed clubsFestival 🇲🇽 Oaxaca, Mexico and 1 moreGuelaguetza An annual Oaxacan festival of indigenous dance, music, costumes and communal sharingFestival 🇬🇧 United Kingdom and 1 moreCarol service A Christmas church service of seasonal hymns, scripture readings and candlelightSpiritual 🇧🇩 Dhaka, Bangladesh and 1 moreBaul traditionবাউল A Bengali devotional minstrel path uniting mystic poetry, music and dancePerformance 🇯🇵 Tokyo, Japan and 3 moreObonお盆 (Obon) A Japanese Buddhist festival honoring the spirits of ancestors through dance, light, and family reunion.Festival 🇮🇳 Sambalpur, IndiaSitalsasthiଶୀତଳ ଷଷ୍ଠୀ A festival in western Odisha re-enacting the divine wedding of Shiva and ParvatiFestival 🇮🇳 Ahmedabad, India and 1 moreGarbaगर्भ A Gujarati circle dance performed around a sacred flame during the festival of NavratriPerformance 🇮🇳 IndiaKoodiyattamകൂടിയാട്ടം An ancient Sanskrit temple drama and dance tradition from Kerala, IndiaPerformance 🇻🇺 VanuatuSand drawingsandroing One unbroken line drawn in sand with a finger, used to tell stories in VanuatuCraft 🇬🇧 Abbots Bromley, United KingdomAbbots Bromley Horn Dance A September folk dance in an English village featuring dancers with reindeer antlers and a hobby horse.Performance 🇨🇳 ChinaMuqamمۇقام A Uyghur modal system of melody types, and the twelve long cycles built on itPerformance 🇯🇲 Kingston, Jamaica and 5 moreReggae A Jamaican music of the late 1960s: a slow beat, a deep bass line and Rastafari rootsPerformance 🇭🇷 Konavle, Croatia and 2 moreOjkanje A throat-shaking style of folk singing from Croatia's Dinaric highlandsPerformance 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom and 6 moreBoishakhi Melaবৈশাখী মেলা A Bengali New Year fair in London each May, with a parade, music and food stallsFestival 🇨🇻 Boa Vista, Cape Verde and 5 moreMorna Cape Verde's guitar-and-voice song, danced in pairs, listed by UNESCO in 2019Performance 🇯🇵 Tokyo, Japan and 5 moreTaiko太鼓 (taiko) Japanese drums, and the ensemble style of playing themPerformance 🇮🇱 Israel and 4 moreTorah readingקריאת התורה The public reading of the Torah scroll in synagogue, chanted to a special tuneSpiritual 🇩🇪 Munich, Germany and 3 moreSchuhplattler An Alpine folk dance of stomps, claps and flat-hand slaps on shoes, knees and thighsPerformance 🇹🇷 Istanbul, TurkeyTurkish folk dance Regional line and circle dances of Turkey, each with its own step and rhythmPerformance 🇷🇴 Bucharest, Romania and 7 moreHorahoră (Romanian), хоро (Bulgarian), оро (Macedonian), הורה (Hebrew) A circle dance from Southeast Europe, danced at weddings and festivalsPerformance 🇺🇸 Hilo, United StatesMerrie Monarch Festival A spring week of hula in Hilo, closing with three nights of competitionFestival 🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland and 3 moreIrish dance Ireland's traditional solo and group dances, from social halls to world competitionsPerformance 🇮🇳 Ahobilam, IndiaNarasimha Jayantiनरसिंहजयंती A one-day Hindu festival marking Vishnu's man-lion avatar and the rescue of PrahladaSpiritual 🇨🇳 Yining, China and 1 moreMeshrepمەشرەپ A Uyghur gathering of music, poetry, dance and moral counsel at harvest and weddingsPerformance 🇰🇷 Honam, South Korea and 2 morePansori판소리 A Korean art of sung storytelling, with one singer, one drummer and a listening crowdPerformance 🇮🇹 ItalyCantu a tenorecantu a tenòre Four men singing in a tight circle, a vocal art of Sardinia's Barbagia hillsPerformance 🇷🇴 RomaniaDoina A free-rhythm Romanian song of longing, sung alone or played to open a dancePerformance 🇦🇺 AustraliaBush ballad Verse and song that tell stories of life in the Australian bushPerformance 🇲🇼 Malawi and 2 moreGule Wamkulu A masked Chewa dance of the Nyau society, danced at funerals and chief installationsPerformance 🇬🇧 United KingdomLong sword dance A Yorkshire winter sword dance kept by village teams at Christmas and Plough MondayPerformance 🇨🇳 ChinaChinese paper cutting剪紙 / 剪纸 (jiǎnzhǐ) Chinese cut paper pictures, pasted on windows and doors for luck at New YearCraft 🇹🇷 Turkey and 2 moreSufi whirling A Sufi meditation in which dervishes spin in circles to turn toward GodSpiritual 🇨🇭 Appenzell, Switzerland and 5 moreYodeling A singing style switching between chest voice and falsetto, kept as a folk tradition across the Alps and globally.Performance 🇧🇷 Recife, BrazilFrevo A fast, brass-driven dance and music of Recife's Carnival, danced with a small umbrellaPerformance 🇷🇸 Serbia and 3 moreKoloКоло A South Slavic circle dance of linked hands, kept at weddings and gatheringsPerformance 🇲🇾 Kelantan, Malaysia and 2 moreMak yongTarian Mak Yong (Jawi: مق يوڠ) A dance-drama of Kelantan and Patani, told in song, music and improvised speechPerformance 🇵🇪 Trujillo, PeruMarinera A courtship dance from Peru's coast, with handkerchiefs and bare feetPerformance 🇪🇸 SpainCorrefoc Devil-costumed fire runs through the streets of Catalan and Valencian festival townsFestival 🇨🇳 Chengdu, China and 1 moreSichuan opera川劇 A Chinese opera from Sichuan, known for split-second mask changes and a central clownPerformance
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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