The map with 56 very festive songs to celebrate what the body asks of us
New Year's resolutions? At this point we may need new ideas.
For example, with Christmas and a new year ahead we have more than enough time to learn some surprising and original Christmas carol to liven up these parties, sing in a circle with the family or ask for the bonus in the neighborhood.
This map made jointly by the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and Esri will let us discover music from up to 24 different countries and expand our repertoire in case next year we decide to travel in December since it includes traditional songs of various holidays Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa that take place at the same time.
'The Virgin called', Santillana
Hanukkah It is a Jewish holiday that consists of lighting a candle from the menorah (a seven-branched chandelier) for eight nights in a row. This holiday recalls the miracle of light that occurred in the Temple of Jerusalem more than 2,200 years ago when the Maccabees, a group of Jewish rebels, defeated the forces of King Antiochus IV of Syria, expelling them from their land.
After entering Jerusalem again, they found the Holy Temple desecrated, with the menorah extinguished, and enough pure ritual oil to keep it lit for a single day. It took eight days to get more oil; and yet the chandelier was kept lit for all that time.
Kwanzaa was established in 1966, during the height of the Civil Rights movements, by African-American activist and academic Maulana Karenga who decided to create a party that could help unite people with African heritage.
In this way, the Kwanza was born, whose name derives from the Swahili phrase 'matunda ya kwanza ' which means “first fruits”, and refers to the common harvest celebrations that took place in different cultures of Africa. This holiday is celebrated almost exclusively by African-Americans in the United States and is based on seven principles: unity, determination, collective work, responsibility, economic cooperation, purpose, creativity and faith. It is customary to light a candle for each of them in homes throughout the week.
'Christmas without my mother', Dominican Republic
“We work with the Smithsonian and other nonprofit organizations on a regular basis. A couple of years ago we had the idea of doing a map with songs related to the festivities and someone from the Smithsonian selected a list of songs and album covers that we included”, Allen Carroll comments to Traveler.es.
After a long career at National Geographic, Allen Carroll joined Esri where he founded a team responsible for explore new ways and techniques of storytelling through cartography.
Some examples of stories he has worked on include out of eden , the journey on foot around the world that the American journalist Paul Salopek is currently performing, or **Sounds of the Wild West,** where sounds from different Montana ecosystems can be heard.
“Our only requirement for the map made in conjunction with the Smithsonian was that the songs be as representative as possible c culturally and geographically Allen says.
"The map was relatively simple, we used ESRI technology to geolocate each of the clips." Other more elaborate examples can be found here.