HERITAGE Day celebrates South Africa’s wealth of diverse and colourful cultures.
Our population of 60.6 million is spread across the breadth of our country’s 1.2 million square kilometres. Speaking, singing and swaying to music in 12 official languages and dressed in blankets, beads, braids or burqas on September 24, South Africans everywhere gather to celebrate their own and their friends’ traditions and cultures.
“When our first democratically elected government decided to make Heritage Day one of our national days, we did so because we knew that our rich and varied cultural heritage has a profound power to help build our nation,” said former President Nelson Mandela, speaking in a 1996 address about the public holiday.
ALSO READ: Weekend viewing
The holiday coincides with Shaka Day, which was celebrated in KwaZulu-Natal until the mid 90s. Heritage Day was created in 1995, and its aim is to recognise and celebrate the unique aspects of the country and its people.
Heritage Day, also called Braai Day in recent years, is the perfect occasion to meet, share a meal and taste food different to your own. Along with the usual braai fare of beer and boerewors, why not also try a classic Durban bunny-chow, Zulu isidudu, a Malay curry or Xhosa umfino? Expand your playlist and rock to the beat of kwaito, masqandi, Cape jazz or classical music and make it a Heritage Day to remember.
