A UNESCO preliminary review panel recommended that 33 traditional Japanese festivals be registered on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list, the Japanese Cultural Affairs Agency said Monday.

Listing of the 33 festivals is set to be officially approved at a meeting in Ethiopia in late November of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Intergovernmental Committee, and the international body usually accepts the panel’s recommendations.

The festivals, most of which date back to the Edo Period (1603-1868), are held in 18 prefectures across Japan and feature parades involving floats made with traditional woodwork and metalwork techniques and decorated with lacquered products and dyed fabrics. The festivals are held as expressions of hope for peace and security as well as rich harvests in each community, the agency said.

Among the 33 festivals, the Yamahoko parade portion of the Gion Festival in Kyoto, and the Hitachi Furyumono parade in Ibaraki Prefecture, were added to UNESCO heritage list in 2009.

But the government has decided to combine the two with 31 similar festivals to list them as a group on the UNESCO heritage list.

The expected registration of the festivals will bring the total number of Japanese items on the intangible cultural heritage list to 21, the agency said.

Kyoto’s Gion Festival, a recognised cultural heritage