NewPilgrimAge at Sežana workshop
11/05/2018
Author: Jasna Fakin Bajec, ZRC SAZU
The heritage connected with the Christian cult of St. Martin of Tours triggers many reflections on how to achieve more solidarity, hospitality and trust among people. His legend of cutting his cloak in half to dress an unclothed beggar has become the European symbol to reduce distances and lack of understanding among nations, generations and genders. The traces of St. Martin’s cult are ubiquitous in contemporary life; however, the question which arises is how to value, understand, interpret and utilize them to meet contemporary challenges and how to involve young people in this process. In public discourse it seems that youth are not interested in interpretations of historical treasures, although they are very active in voluntary initiatives and in this way apply St. Martin’s social values.
The aim of the workshop was to find out what youth at 17-18 years old understand under the concept of cultural heritage, how heritage is interpreted in different school subjects, how they will make heritage more attractive, and how they view St. Martin’s social values and use them in their lives. The workshop was carried out in the Secondary school for economy in Sežana, in the subject Entrepreneurship (on 10 May 2018), where students among other things also learn about cultural heritage management and tourist industry. In the workshop first the ZRC SAZU's researchers presented the development potentials of cultural heritage and some activities of NPA projects. After that students worked in three groups and try to utilize the learned knowledge of heritage to resolve some of the challenges in their living space. One group worked on problem how to invite tourist in small villages in Karst region, another group work on gastronomy and the last one how they would persuade the director of the school and the chief of the school restaurant, which has a long tradition in that school, that the restaurant is very important for students and its offer should be modified with some local culinary heritage. The problem of students was that the restaurant will be closed in the next school year.
