Falconry, our heritage

Falconry was among 46 items added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List last week, which is a good excuse to post this photo:

I took it at a Renaissance fair in Navalcarnero, a small town near Madrid, in August. The annual fair recreates the wedding celebrations of King Felipe IV and Mariana de Austria held there in 1649. This year it included Europe's biggest traveling exhibition of raptors.

Spain was among 11 countries that backed falconry. UNESCO also recognized Spanish flamenco music and dance; the castells or human towers of the Catalan region of Spain; the Cant de la Sibil·la of the Spanish island of Mallorca, which is a kind of Christmas church music; and the Mediterranean diet, which was also backed by Greece, Italy, and Morocco.

— Sue Burke