Traditional festive gathering of country folk in Mijas evolves into an event to attract tourists

The 'pastorales' were created as a way to announce Christmas, socialise and to fill the stomach. Now they bring a huge number of visitors to the town

Lorena Cádiz

Mijas

Friday, 27 December 2024, 13:03

Francisco Alarcón, known to everyone as 'Corro', is now 66 years old and the first time he heard a 'pastoral' song he was a child.

"I grew up in the countryside and I perfectly remember my grandmother making traditional festive dishes at this time of year," he said.

"Back then, Christmas preparations began very early because everything had to be made, nothing was bought ready-made, like now," added Corro, who follows the thread of his memories and smiles when he thinks how almost every night the festive pastoral singers would knock on the door of his house and sing to them.

"It is also true that I had two young aunts and people would often come to serenade them," he explained and added that the 'pastorales' have always been fun, including singing a serenade in the midst of the Christmas atmosphere. All those years ago there were not the same opportunities to socialise as there are now and the young people had to take advantage when the opportunity arose.

This is how the 'pastorales' were born, as a way of socialising, as a meeting point for the country people, who in the winter months finished their work at dusk and got together to celebrate Christmas.

"Every year, once All Saints' Day had passed, the locals would get together in a group and go from house to house singing and announcing Christmas. The 'pastorales' were created as a religious activity, announcing the birth of Jesus, but also because it was a way of spending time together and filling our stomachs in times when there wasn't so much. People gave us fritters, cooked sweet potatoes...," said Corro, who was born in Mijas, the son and grandson of Mijas people.

The link between Mijas and the 'pastorales' goes back a long way. From the times when Mijas was a country village and tourism had not been heard of. What is impressive is that this tradition has survived to this day and, what is even more important, that the 'pastorales' still have a future.

"It seems that there is a generational change," said Corro, with many young people and even many children interested in what they call the 'zambombeo mijeño', a tradition that they have seen in their homes since they were tiny.

Currently Mijas has five large 'pastoral' groups, although it once had ten. "We have always been one of the towns in the province of Malaga with the most groups, each rural area of Mijas had its own," continued Corro, who said that each of the groups has its own characteristics and its own manner of singing and playing the instruments and that he, without seeing them, knows how to distinguish whether it is one or the other.

Forty years

That variety was what led, more than forty years ago, to the promotion of a competition in which the groups of Mijas competed with other pastoral groups from nearby municipalities, such as those of Fuengirola, Benalmádena or Alhaurín el Grande. This competition was the prelude to an event that began 39 years ago and in which all the groups from Mijas participate, plus those from other parts of the Malaga province, which rotate every year, because there are so many. They all perform in the Plaza Virgen de la Peña, in Mijas Pueblo, where the event is now a popular pre-Christmas festivity.

Corro neither sings nor plays an instrument, but his role has been key in the survival and appreciation of this tradition throughout the decades. For many years he has been the coordinator of this contest, which this year was held on Sunday.

Now the latest gift for the 'pastorales' event has just been delivered by the Diputación de Málaga provincial authority. The Mijas 'pastorales' contest has been distinguished as a 'Fiesta de Singularidad Turística Provincial', a title given to special events with their own uniqueness that attract large numbers of visitors. Indeed, people flock to Mijas to see the 'pastorales' every year and with this new distinction the event's popularity is expected to grow.

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