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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
🇲🇹 Valletta, MaltaMaltese Carnivalil-Karnival ta' Malta A lively week of costumed parades, dancing, satirical floats and sweets across Malta.Festival · Sweets given and shared 🇺🇸 New York City, United StatesWest Indian Day Parade A lively Caribbean street procession held every September in Brooklyn, New YorkFestival 🇯🇵 Tokushima, JapanAwa Dance Festival阿波踊り A summer street dance festival held in Tokushima during the Buddhist season of ObonFestival 🇳🇿 Rotorua, New ZealandKapa haka Māori group song and dance, from tribal and school groups to the national stagePerformance 🇪🇸 Valencia, SpainFallasFalles de València Valencia's five-day March fiesta of giant paper figures and bonfiresFestival 🇧🇸 Bahamas and 3 moreJunkanoo A Caribbean masquerade festival of masked dancing, goatskin drumming, and cowbellsFestival 🇺🇾 Montevideo, UruguayCarnival in Uruguay An extended festival of drum processions, stage satire, and dance across Uruguay.Festival 🇧🇩 Dhaka, BangladeshPohela Falgunপহেলা ফাল্গুন A Bangladeshi festival welcoming the first day of spring with music and flowersSeasonal 🇬🇭 Accra, GhanaChale Wote Street Art Festival An annual street art festival in Accra featuring murals, theater, and music.Performance 🇨🇭 Basel, SwitzerlandCarnival of BaselBasler Fasnacht A 72-hour masked carnival of drums, flutes and satire in northern SwitzerlandFestival 🇷🇸 Guča, SerbiaGuča Trumpet FestivalФестивал трубача у Гучи A weekend brass band competition and folk festival in western SerbiaFestival 🇺🇸 United States and 2 morePowwow A communal gathering of dancing, singing and fellowship across Native North AmericaFestival 🇧🇷 BrazilFesta JuninaFestas Juninas A Brazilian midwinter celebration marked by bonfires, folk dances and countryside gamesFestival 🇲🇽 Mazatlán, MexicoCarnival of MazatlánCarnaval de Mazatlán An annual five-day festival of parades, fireworks, poetry and dance in coastal MexicoFestival 🇲🇽 Mexico City, MexicoPassion Play of Iztapalapa A community passion play staged across Iztapalapa during Holy WeekSpiritual 🇪🇸 Alicante, SpainBonfires of Saint John in AlicanteFogueres de Sant Joan A midsummer festival of towering satirical monuments, music and fire in AlicanteFestival 🇩🇪 Germany and 5 moreMaypole A tall wooden pole, garlanded and danced around, raised at May Day, Whitsun or MidsummerFestival 🇪🇸 Seville, Spain and 5 moreAzulejo Painted, tin-glazed ceramic tiles that cover walls and floors across Portugal and SpainCraft 🇮🇩 Indonesia and 5 moreBatikꦧꦛꦶꦏ꧀ (bathik) A Javanese wax-resist way of patterning cloth, and the textiles made that wayCraft 🇮🇳 IndiaBharatanatyam A South Indian temple dance of set poses, hand gestures and rhythm, now danced on stagePerformance 🇮🇩 Uluwatu, IndonesiaKecakᬓᬾᬘᬓ᭄ (Balinese), Tari Kecak (Indonesian) A circle of men chanting chak as they dance the Ramayana epic in BaliPerformance 🇮🇳 Varanasi, India and 5 moreRamlilaरामलीला Open-air community plays staged across autumn nights, recounting the journey of Rama.Performance 🇪🇸 Barcelona, Spain and 1 moreSardana A Catalan circle dance, danced hand in hand to an eleven-player cobla bandPerformance 🇷🇺 Russia and 2 moreKhorovodхоровод A Slavic circle dance with singing, danced with linked hands or little fingersPerformance 🇹🇷 Erzurum, TurkeyJereedCirit Riders on horseback throw blunt wooden javelins at rivals in this Turkish team sportGame 🇺🇸 New Orleans, United StatesJazz funeral A New Orleans funeral march led by brass music, moving from mourning to joyful danceRite of passage 🇹🇷 Bursa, Turkey and 5 moreKaragöz and Hacivat A Turkish shadow play of two quarrelling friends, acted on a lit screen behind a curtainPerformance 🇺🇾 Montevideo, Uruguay and 4 morePayada Improvised ten-line verses traded by guitar-playing payadores in the Río de la PlataPerformance 🇦🇹 Vienna, AustriaVienna New Year's ConcertNeujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker A morning of waltzes and polkas on 1 January, played by the Vienna PhilharmonicPerformance 🇺🇸 New Orleans, United StatesMardi Gras Indians A New Orleans carnival tradition where Black revelers wear elaborate Native American-inspired suits to honor historical Festival 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreCham danceའཆམ་ A masked monastery dance of Tibetan Buddhism, staged at festivals to teach and blessSpiritual 🇬🇭 GhanaAdowa A Ghanaian Akan dance where hands and feet carry the mood of the occasionPerformance 🇲🇽 Guadalajara, MexicoMexican hat danceJarabe tapatío Mexico's national courtship dance, in which a dancer's steps circle the brim of a hatPerformance 🇲🇽 Veracruz, Mexico and 3 moreBaile folklórico Staged folk dances of Mexico and Central America, with regional dress and mariachi musicPerformance 🇬🇧 United KingdomTwmpath The Welsh word for a village dancing green, now used for a social dance eveningPerformance 🇸🇨 SeychellesMoutya A Seychellois evening dance of drum, song and bolder movement, listed by UNESCO in 2021Performance 🇲🇳 Mongolia and 5 moreThroat singing Several deep, guttural singing styles, each named and kept by its own peoplePerformance 🇭🇷 Omiš, CroatiaKlapa Unaccompanied harmony singing from Dalmatia, built by groups of friendsPerformance 🇸🇰 SlovakiaFujara A tall Slovak flute played by shepherds, with a deep voice built from overtonesPerformance 🇹🇴 TongaLakalaka A formal group dance of Tonga where singers stand in rows and move their arms to express songs.Performance 🇱🇹 Lithuania and 1 moreLithuanian folk songsliaudies dainos Songs of love, weddings, work and war, sung in unison or in harmony across LithuaniaPerformance 🇺🇿 Bukhara, Uzbekistan and 2 moreShashmaqamШашмақом A classical song cycle of Central Asia, built on six modes and Sufi love poetryPerformance 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 5 moreKlezmerקלעזמער An Ashkenazi Jewish instrumental tradition of lively dance tunes and ritual melodiesPerformance 🇮🇷 Tabriz, IranPersian carpetفرش ایرانی Hand-woven knotted rugs and flat textiles crafted across the towns and tribes of IranCraft 🇮🇳 IndiaSattriya A classical dance from Assam, kept in monasteries and performed on stages worldwidePerformance 🇮🇳 IndiaMohiniyattam A gentle solo dance from Kerala, once a temple art and now taught in dance schoolsPerformance 🇮🇳 India and 1 moreRangoliरंगोली Floor patterns of rice flour, sand or petals, drawn at the doorstep for festivalsCraft 🇮🇳 Kuchipudi, IndiaKuchipudi A classical dance-drama from Andhra Pradesh, with roots in temple and bhakti performance.Performance
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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