St. Joseph's Day

Wednesday is St. Joseph's Day, the Feast of St. Joseph. But since that's during Holy Week, traditional altars for St. Joseph were up this weekend, so as to not interfere.

A wreath of Italian bread on the door welcomes you.

Friday evening, Elizabeth and I went to some of the St. Joesph Altars open for viewing around the city. Each has a huge spread of food, paying homage to St. Joseph. This is evidently a Sicilian tradition which began after prayers to St. Joseph ended the drought and famine in the middle ages. Prepared food was served to the needy after the altar was taken down.


Back in the day, i.e. before I was born, in New Orleans you couldn't walk for more than a block without stumbling upon a home with an altar, in the traditionally Italian areas of town. Today, those family altars are few, and most are found in churches.


Each altar, no matter how humble or grand, is a feast of Italian food..fig cookies, stuffed artichokes, biscotti, wine, vegetables, pasta, whole fish, and breads. And we are talking New Orleans Italians here, so there are trays of crawfish, crabs, and shrimp. The pastries and breads take on various shapes...hammers, saws, crawfish, sandals.

There's a lot of love going into this tribute to their Saint.


Donations are taken at the altar. Each has a place to leave your petitions.


Most altars were set up for viewing on Friday and will be serving food this evening. Those Italians live, love, and worship with food.

St. Joseph Pray For Us

Each altar gives a few cookies and a fava bean to visitors. The fava bean is the "lucky bean." I can remember my rubbing the smooth bean my Danny (my maternal grandmother) kept stashed in the drawer next to the refrigerator each time I opened the drawer. The bean is a reminder of luck. The Italians were thankful for the abundance of fava beans. As a kid I always thought the bean was to bring me luck. Now it's a little reminder each time I open my coin purse of the luck I have been blessed with.

Some of my cookies and my fava beans.

We visited four altars, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Lamana Panno Fallo, and the Talamo residence on Webster Street, (and stopped at Angelo Brocato's for cappuccinos and blood orange ice!) so I think I was able to get in plenty petitions and made off with a haul of cookies and plenty of beans to run my thumb over to remind me of how lucky I am.