In South Africa we have a very special day that we celebrate and that is called "Heritage day".
A heritage means it is something that you got from your mom or dad or grandparents or people that lived before you.
In our country we have a rainbow nation. There are a lot of different cultures and believes and rituals that are different for each of the groups of people.
People celebrate their heritage in different ways, but the late President Nelson Mandela decided that it would be a good idea if we had a day on which all cultures can celebrate their heritage. Even though this was the day that the Zulu people celebrated their late King Shaka Zule, it will now be a day that each person celebrates his/her own heritage.
This day is also informally known as "Braai day" since a braai is the heritage of most South Africans.
- Watch the video and learn the meaning of Heritage day
We do not only have cultures from different people that we celebrate, we also have beautiful places that make up our beautiful country.
These places are called "heritage sites" and this means we must protect it and you may not break it down or go an live there or build anything there.
We will have a look at a few of these heritage sites in South Africa.
- Why do we need to protect these sites? (think about your children and your children's children)
Cradle of humankind
Here you will be able to see different caves and fossils of prehistoric people and animals that were discovered.
Have a look at what you will see if you visit this interesting site.
Cape Floral region
If you have ever been to the Cape you would know that you find beautiful flowers there and also the Protea and Fynbos.
These are plants that are found nowhere else in the world naturally. That means they only grow by themselves in this region - if you want to grow it any other place in the world, you will have to take the seeds there and plant it.
- What does it mean if we say a plant is indigenous to an area?
- Do research and find out what type of plants grow naturally in this area. You can also find pictures of the different types of plants
Robben Island
About 7 km off the coast of Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, you will find this island.
This island is very important in the history of South Africa because on this island you will find a jail. It is in this jail that Nelson Mandela was for 18 years of the 27 years before he was set free and became the first president in the new democratic South Africa.
- What does the word "democratic" mean?
Lets take a tour of Robben Island and learn what it means to our country's history.
- Here is a list of all the heritage sites in our country. You are going to choose one that you find most interesting or would know more about. Do some reading on it and find pictures or videos that you can see what it looks like there.
- Which of these sites have you been to and which ones would you like to go and visit?
Cape Floral Region Protected AreasFossil Hominid Sites of SterkfonteiniSimangaliso Wetland ParkMapungubwe Cultural LandscapeRichtersveld Cultural and Botanical LandscapeRobben IslanduKhahlamba / Drakensberg ParkVredefort Dome- For fun - You are either going to make a collage of all your pictures of the different heritage sites, with their names on or if you want to try something a bit more arty and challenging you can try and make a protea flower out of paper. Have fun doing it and do not give up if you do not get it right the first time
It is very important that we protect our heritage sites and that we treasure our culture. It is also important that we understand there are different people with different cultures in this country and we need to respect one another.
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