The Children’s Procession is the celebration in which the children of Verges perform the Procession with their own participants. It traditionally takes place on the afternoon of Holy Saturday, with a performance in the square and a route through the streets. Consult the official programme for the time, route and arrangements of each edition.
It is an opportunity to see children make a tradition they have known from an early age their own. The performance involves learning roles, listening to fellow participants and sustaining the effort before an audience. It has value in its own right, beyond preparing future participants in the adults’ Procession.
An origin that cannot be fixed to a single date
Felip Figueras i Oliveras remembers that, when he was eight or nine, his group knew verses spoken by the adults, built a cross and began performing a procession in the streets. He did not remember older boys having done so before and saw that initiative as the beginning of the Children’s Procession.
This memory preserves the initiative of a particular group, but does not establish that they founded the tradition itself. Màriam Serrà’s account, published in 1998 from her work on the 1996 celebration, describes a spontaneous origin through imitation of the adults, without giving a founding date. Personal memories and the book’s account need to be read with these limitations.
Shirts, school smocks, reeds and reused clothing
The testimonies describe ways of participating very different from those shown in more recent photographs. Maite Poch i Rovira remembers nightshirts, hairdressing gowns, school smocks and spears made by the children themselves. In her memory it was mainly a street procession, without the formal direction she associates with later periods.
Aureli Serra remembers clothing piled up in the old schools on the ground floor of the town hall, including costumes he attributes to the adult Manages. Children who could not find a costume could wear their school smock; spears were made from reeds and cardboard tips. These are attributed memories of his childhood, which should not be artificially brought together under a single date.
Serrà’s book also describes the reuse of old adult costumes and, in the period she observed, costumes being made especially for the children. The material thus shows the transformation of a practice with improvised resources into a more prepared performance.
From children’s initiative to a more developed organisation
Felip recalls scenes in different parts of the village, without microphones or a performance on a platform. Serrà, by contrast, describes a celebration in 1996 divided between a staged performance and a street route, organised by the older boys with adult support. Pere Maspoch also highlights the change from a practice closer to play to a structured activity with value of its own.
This development should not be reduced to a single year of change. Different generations have participated in different forms of the Children’s Procession, with rehearsals, costumes and organisation being worked on over time.
Serrà’s account includes a shorter route, possible variations in the passage through Carrer dels Cargols depending on the age of the Manages, red tracksuit trousers and a Dance of Death without the group of torchbearers because it is still daylight. She also mentions the absence of religious tableaux, candles and flowers. These details describe the celebration she observed; they are not an unchanging rule for every edition.
Learning through participation
Aureli Serra and Pere Maspoch highlight the children’s role in passing on the tradition between generations. Performing a role, remembering verses and coordinating with other children offers an initial experience of participation. Serrà’s book also connects this practice with learning to perform.
This does not mean that every child must later continue in the same role or necessarily join the adults’ Procession. What is passed on also includes a connection with the celebration, knowledge of the scenes and the experience of making it happen together. The Children’s Procession allows them to enter the tradition by practising it, with the responsibility and enthusiasm appropriate to each age.
To discover the first part of the adults’ celebration, see the performance in the Square.
Sources
Màriam Serrà, Verges i la processó que no es veu (El Mèdol, 1998), pp. 139–143, an account of the 1996 celebration. Documents from interviews with Felip Figueras i Oliveras, Maite Poch i Rovira, Aureli Serra and Pere Maspoch, preserved in the project’s oral memory collection. Memories have been paraphrased with attribution rather than presented as verbatim quotations from the videos.
