The true meaning of Heritage Day

A multicultural country with eleven official languages, Heritage Day – celebrated today (Thursday) – has different meanings for South Africa’s many cultural groups and is celebrated in different ways.

It means a variety of arts, culture, history and nation-building activities.

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In KZN Heritage Day was previously known as Shaka Day, commemorating Zulu King Shaka who played an important role in uniting disparate Zulu clans into a cohesive nation.

Each year people gather at King Shaka’s grave to honour him.

However, the day was omitted from the proposed Public Holidays Bill before Parliament in 1995 and was later called Heritage Day.

The name change was aimed at drawing in the wider South African community who previously did not participate, but now could share in a previously divisive history.

In the spirit of reconciliation, a compromise was made to create a day on which everyone in the country could celebrate diversity in cultural heritage.

More than traditional outfits and braais

Heritage Day is not only about wearing traditional attire and getting out the braai tongs.

It is a time of celebrating our great diversity and many cultures.

In an urban context, heritage may include past events but also, less tangibly, neighbourhood identities and histories with significance in the present.

Heritage not only refers to our historical inheritance, creative expression and food, it also embraces various languages that have become entrenched in our cultural milieu.

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Language is the key ingredient humans require to build bridges of understanding between cultures and communities.

Learning a language or enhancing one’s use of a language gives the learner the ability to step inside the mind and context of a culture.

For survival in the global and local community, every nation needs global citizens able to competently communicate and understand each other’s cultures.

So this Heritage Day, let’s embrace each other and learn more about each other’s cultures.  

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