St. Joseph's Day

New Orleans is (was..before the hurricane) a diverse city of many nationalities and cultures. One of the prominent ones here is Sicilian Italian. In the late 1800's Sicilian fled Italy due to the poverty that literally starved many. New Orleans was one of the prime settlement points for them. And the food we have today has been largely influenced by those Sicilian immigrants.
A custom that we have that is unusual is the St. Joseph Day Altar (see picture below), an annual event in March. It shows the baking wonders of the ancestors of those immigrant. The altars began long ago in the Middle Ages) and are a Catholic shrine to St. Joseph in gratitude for his answering the Sicilians prayers for deliverance from starvation.
People here work on their own private altars that are displayed to the public on St. Joseph's Day as a way that those people show they will share their food blessings with the less fortunate. The food is donated to charity after St. Joseph's Day. Most of that food is donated is non perishable, breads, cakes cookies etc.
I will spare you the details of the St. Joseph food altar ceremonies, but think the symbolic nature of the foods on these altars is interesting. Here are some of the foods and the symbolic reasons they appear on the altars.
* Bread crumbs- They are placed on the altar to represent the sawdust of St. Joseph the Carpenter.
* Twelve Whole Fish- they represent the 12 apostles
* Wine- symbolizes the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine.
* Church Relics- A rosary, prayer cards, candles, pictures and statues of St. Joseph always appear on an altar.
* Donation Bowl- This is placed on the altar to raise money for the poor. There is also a pen and pencil next to it for the donator to make petitions for prayer.
* No Meat- Yep! No meat is ever on an altar because St. Joseph's Day falls on Lent, the Catholic time for fasting from meat. Most Sicilians did not eat any meat during Lent. * Decorative Breads- These are the visual highlight of the St. Joseph Altar. They are special decorative breads baked in symbolic shapes such as chalices, crosses, doves, lambs fish. bibles, palms, hearts.....
* Fig Cakes- and other Sicilian cookie that are also shaped in similar form to the breads.
* Paper Bags- visitors who view the altars are usually given these that contain blessed items from the altars, such as a holy card or a religious medal, maybe even one of the cookies or breads * Fava Beans- These are considered by Sicilians to be lucky ("lucky beans")
That's some of what is on the altars. You may have been bored by this, but I wanted to share it with you so you can better understand some of the culture of my city that may have been forever lost to that hurricane. Hmmmmmmm I may even get a lucky fava been for you and have it make all your dreams come true.