The Holy Encounter: the game born in Barbastro… that moved all of Spain

When we created Culture Games , we knew we wanted to transform living culture into playable experiences. What we didn't know was that our first game —based on a local tradition— would end up traveling all over Spain and touching the hearts of people who, even though they didn't know Barbastro, felt Holy Week was part of their own history .

That's how The Holy Encounter was born.
A card game that's not just played: it's felt .

Holy Week in Barbastro: history, emotion, and community

Barbastro, a town in the Aragonese Somontano region, experiences its Holy Week with an intensity that can be felt in every street.
With centuries of history, this celebration is one of the great pillars of local identity: a moment where faith, tradition, and collective emotion merge .

Organized by the Coordinating Board of Brotherhoods, Barbastro's Holy Week stands out for:

- The richness of its processional floats.
- The intergenerational involvement of brotherhood members, musicians, and neighbors.
- Absolute respect for silence, aesthetics, and ceremonial rhythm.
- The act that impressed us the most: The Holy Encounter , where the images of Christ and the Virgin meet in the middle of the street, before an expectant crowd.

That moment —the encounter between pain and hope, between death and solace— was why we decided to name the game that.

The Holy Encounter: tradition, card by card

How to turn such a celebration into a board game?
We didn't want to make a "brotherhood trivial pursuit." We wanted to recreate the tension, coordination, unforeseen events, and emotion of organizing a real procession.

Thus was born The Holy Encounter , a cooperative card game where players:

- Assume the role of procession organizers.

- Manage times, floats, brotherhoods, and conflicts.

- Struggle against unforeseen events, setbacks, and difficult decisions.

- Aim to arrive on time... and with dignity, at the moment of the procession.

You don't need to know Barbastro to play it. But once you do, you understand everything that's at stake —beyond the cardboard—.

A game that started local... and touched many Holy Weeks

What began as a tribute to a city ended up traveling all over Spain.
From Andalusia to Galicia, passing through Castile, Valencia, Extremadura, and Navarre, The Holy Encounter has reached:

- Families who relive their Holy Week childhood with cards on the table.

- Teachers who use it to explain heritage and values.

- Brotherhoods that give it as a gift to new members as a symbol of identity.

- Cultural workshops, libraries, and catechism classes that have adopted it as a resource.

And the most beautiful thing: in many cities, it has served as a mirror to recognize their own Holy Weeks, their rituals, their floats, their silences…

Because, although each place has its own version, the feeling is universal.

More than a game, a way to transmit

The Holy Encounter has shown that intangible heritage can also be played without losing respect or depth.
It is a bridge between generations, between the sacred and the playful, between tradition and innovation.

Thanks to it, young people who saw Holy Week as something alien have discovered:

- What is behind each tunic.
- How much work each step involves.
- What role the community plays in keeping the tradition alive.

And they have done it by laughing, cooperating, failing, and trying again. By playing.

The Holy Encounter was our first game, but it won't be the last to turn culture into cards.
It has taught us that traditions are not preserved only with solemn acts: they are also celebrated with emotion and transmitted with creativity.

And if you also know a festival, a story, or a tradition that deserves its own game… tell us about it.

Maybe the next box opened at a table… will carry your story inside <3