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The quarters and 8th September, or better the organization of the festival celebrating Our Lady of the Intercession, Patron and Protector of Recco.
Don Giulio Zinellu, the rector of the Sanctuary from 1965 to 1997, in his sermons for the blessing of new flags was used to compare the Quarters to a family in which you work, you discuss, you argue, even hotly, but there is always an ideal, the ideal, the purpose of a commitment that lasts 365 days a year: the cult of the Virgin Mary, whose figure is painted on the flag itself, the most precious symbol, the history that is handed on from father to son.
The Quarters have lots of history to tell: they are an example of oral tradition, as no official written record exists, except some sparse stories with pictures that date mostly after World War II.
The episodesmentioned by the elders are always fascinating; when they go back with memories to events of the past which they witnessed or just had heard of, the attention of the listener is always ready to take in the wealth of details, the precision of the tale about dates, people, places and events as if all had happened yesterday.
The Quarters of "yesterday" originated as small groups of people meeting in their own neighbourhood a few weeks before 8th September to organize the firing of "mascoli" to celebrate Our Lady of the Intercession; the organization did not exist, all was simple, you bought gunpowder at the tobacconist's and there were no problems.
As years (or better centuries) went by, we have got to "nowadays"; beside the "old small Ligurian mortars" there are the fireworks, the food stands, the publicity of the festival and the side events such as concerts and other entertainments.
Some argued that all this was to be seen in the right perspective, that the festival was becoming only a huge commercial event choked by sponsors, and its origins had been wiped out.
A foreigner coming to Recco for the first time in the days between 5th and 8th September may get the same impression.
But if this all were only business, why should nearly a thousand people work as volunteers for a whole year on behalf of their festival and turn into cooks, waiters, barmen in the food stands to finance the fireworks that most times they can't even see?
The mover of this fascinating activity, the spirit that stirs men and women of all ages, is the atmosphere that you breathe in the quarter, the wish of staying together with the others for the others, as the work of the quarter people comes straight from the heart, from the teaching of the elders in a field which is getting harder and harder and where the satisfaction of going on with the work and the hope of handing it on is the greatest prize.
And this is why the Quarters will exist "tomorrow" too.
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