At dawn on the 9^th September the air is like that of the calm following a storm, it is Sunday. The sky   is blue and at the Contrada Crochi, the traditional festivity of the Madonna is held.

The participants are multitudinous and come from the  many nearby villages. Besides the religious aspect, the  festivity of the Amusa riverside, is also an annual  meeting place for families and friends who live at great  distances. It is an occasion for the many priests from  the centre, from Campoli di Ursini and from San Nicola  to meet and agree upon the asking price for a mass or a  funeral: the saying says, there’s strength in numbers.  The festivity also heralds unions in marriage.

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  Rosa from San Nicola says to her husband: “Bruno, do you remember when our Mariannina was   born, when the compare Nuciforo di Candidati came to see us? When they drank our wine from the   Calatria vineyard? Do you remember when compare Ilario remarked that a vineyard capable of   producing such wine certainly sold its soul to the Devil? Do you remember that they brought their   son Ciccillo who was six years old?”
  Mastro Bruno, Rosa’s husband, while struggling with a cannata of wine which finishes too quickly,   merely nods. Long experience teaches men the wise habit of never speaking to their wives, they   merely nod yes or no.

  «Rosa carries on: “The small Ciccillo should be about twenty now and he isn’t married, otherwise the   compari would have told us. Our Mariannina is already sixteen and she’s beginning to worry me. Her   trousseau is ready and you always said that you wanted to give the Calatria vineyard to her. We can   give Concettina the olive grove, but for now we must think about Mariannina, she’s already sixteen,   do you understand? Why don’t we go to the Crochi festivity where we shall certainly see the compari   di Candidati?”»

  The compari Nuciforo di Candidati, at around the same time, on the same day, are finishing dinner:   «Lets go to the Crochi festivity because it is about time Ciccillo settled down and we will certainly   find the right girl for him there, perhaps one of the family or even a comare».

  On the eve of the Crochi festivity, this kind of discussion happens in Campoli as in Focà, in Pezzolo   and in Popelli, in Obile and in Finocchio: wherever there is a young man for whom a wife must be   found even more so where there is an old girl, sixteen years old, who needs a husband.

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  From the early afternoon on Saturday, as well as the «feràri» with their crates of curd, cheeses,   bechamel and buns, there are professional, and non, butchers.

  The victim is the goat and the typical, traditional meal for the Saturday evening is the cotto, with   giblets and other insides quickly washed out in the river and cooked in chunks with tomato and chilli   along with spicy dried meats. It is an ancient tradition to enjoy these dishes.

The careless young boys, without a thought and full of  wine, seem to smell the scent of the young virgins lying  under the olive trees, where they languidly watch the  young men who frenetically dance to the harmonica  tunes singing: “duvi t’ha muzzicatu lu tarantulu  mbielenatu? Si t’ha muzzicatu alla panza, panza cu  panza nun c’è crianza…”  The old people carry on eating the cotto which becomes  ever more tasty because it is less and less clean. The  women mutter their prayers and rest in the church. The  Virgin, from her pedestal, smiles down on everyone,  even those who swear because they are drunk.

Thanks to Luigi Briglia
for his splendid photography


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