Twelve elements, ranging from rice planting rituals in Japan to Mexico’‘s mariachi music to a horseback-riding tradition in France, were added to the United Nations-backed list of the world’‘s outstanding examples of intangible heritage.

A 24-member intergovernmental committee, meeting in Bali, Indonesia, inscribed seven elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

From the Latin American region the following cultural riches were added to this important list:

• Mexico’‘s mariachi music, which frequently involves trumpets, violins, the vihuela and the guitarron (or bass guitar).

• Peru’‘s pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Lord of Qoyllurit’‘i, a 24-hour event in which people from eight indigenous villages travel to a sanctuary 58 days after Easter each year, was included on the list, and so are the cultural practices and expressions linked to the balafon—a pentatonic xylophone—of the Senufo communities of neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali.