Els Pastorets de Berga

The Christmas story is brought to life here by shepherds from our own community: humble people. A people in sheepskin coats and berets, with their small daily struggles that embody the greatness and misery of our human condition: love, greed, friendship, and so on.

A slightly different Pastorets where angels and demons coexist with the small passions and migrated virtues of the different characters who live in well-known environments: Pedraforca, Queralt, the Fuente del Guiu, San Quirce de Pedret or the Portal de Santa Magdalena.

Since 1900

It was at Christmas 1900, when the Foment's own premises hosted the first performance in Berga of the Pastorets, a play entitled " The Cradle of Jesus" written by the Catalan author Frederic Soler ( Serafí Pitarra ). These Pastorets had premiered in Barcelona on December 23, 1891. Pitarra had conceived the character of Satan specifically for Enric Borràs, a great actor, who gave a truly remarkable performance, according to contemporary reviews. The play also stood out from the general mediocrity that characterized the genre in those years. Josep Coma, known as Andreu Borràs, director of the Foment's theater section, saw these Pastorets in Barcelona and convinced his fellow cast members to perform them in Berga. He entrusted the music to Ramon Reig, son of Torelló and nephew of the organist of Berga at that time.

"The Catalan sage"

Since 1900, the Pastorets have been performed in Berga without interruption, with the exception of the three Christmases during the war (1936-1939). From their inception, the Pastorets have boasted important figures among their actors, directors, and set designers. The list would be very long, but it is worth highlighting the figure of the second director the play had in our city, the poet and playwright Ramon Vinyes i Cluet, the Catalan scholar who was a friend of Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez.

Our organization has been responsible for this since 1958. It has been the result of the effort and enthusiasm of many people. Special mention must be made of the tenacity and determination of Daniel Tristán y Soler, who was the director and driving force behind AT La Farsa almost from our beginnings until his death in 2006. Without him, we wouldn't be where we are today. From there, the current project began, which was introduced to us and directed in its early years by Frederic Roda i Fàbregas, a good friend and a great expert on Pitarra's text.

The homemade Shepherds

The Shepherds of Berga, like all the others, have a biblical background. But they are neither a representation of a mystery play nor a biblical nativity scene. They are homely shepherds. A humble, domestic nativity scene. It is not the Jewish people who go to worship the Messiah, but our people. A people of sheepskin coats and berets with whom we all feel completely identified. And the action does not take place in the classic biblical settings, but in the most characteristic and representative places of our town: at the foot of the majestic Pedraforca, under the symbolic Three-Branched Pine, in front of the extraordinary church of San Quirze de Pedret, in the medieval Berguedeño square of Santa Magdalena, where Josep...

Carob beans

Today, the carob pods of Els Pastorets are one of the most anticipated Christmas traditions. Even in Serafín Pitarra 's original text, they constitute a biting critique of Barcelona at the time; of that Barcelona that was tearing down walls and growing towards the Eixample district at the end of the 19th century.

The premise is quite simple: Garrofa—as mayor—after returning from Hell with his assigned, and ultimately unsuccessful, mission to convince Satan to leave them alone, answers everyone's questions and explains what he's like, what he's seen, and what surprised him. This is the moment used to review local events and figures, both local and otherwise, with a particular fondness, of course, for politicians from Berguedà. This tradition continued even during the dictatorship, when the opportunity was seized to add a last-minute anecdote, thus circumventing the inevitable and inflexible censorship.

From 1973 to 2015, the text of the 44 poems recited in the Pastorets (Christmas pageants) was chosen through an open competition, with the winners announced at a dinner usually held a few days before Christmas. In 2022, this tradition was revived with the aim of revitalizing the literary competition and returning to its origins.

Winter Patum

These are our Shepherds. Little shepherds where we find, evidently, the theological struggle between angel and devil. However, parallel to this main action, we find other stories; small struggles that personify the virtues and vices of our human condition: greed, love… In our Shepherds, then, two different worlds coexist: the theological world of angels and demons and the less lofty world of men driven by petty passions and migrating virtues that personify them.

Father Josep Armengou i Feliu, a distinguished native of Berguedà, defined our Pastorets in the most accurate way possible. "The Pastorets of Berga," he said, "are our winter Patum, without the frenzy, of course, that comes with a street festival like our annual Corpus Christi celebration. The Pastorets are something more intimate and homey, as is fitting for winter celebrations."