March 19th St. Joseph’s
Day
St. Joseph’s Day is
celebrated throughout most of Italy and is being celebrated more and more by the
Italian communities in the United States.
St. Joseph, the foster father
of Jesus, the husband of Mary, and the universal patron of the Catholic Church,
is honored on March 19th. This day commemorates a promise made to St.
Joseph by our ancestors. According to
legend, when a severe drought struck western Sicily in the Middle Ages,
the people of that area prayed to St. Joseph asking him to intercede for
them to God. It seemed that all their crops would be destroyed and they
would
starve unless God helped them. They promised to honor St. Joseph
perpetually if God would send rain. The rain fell, the land turned green,
and food was once again abundant. From that day on they kept their promise
by honoring St.
Joseph on his feast day and by helping the needy in their community.
And so began the custom of St.
Joseph’s Table or Altar (La Tavola di San Giuseppe). Individuals or
communities who received favors from St. Joseph set up an altar or table and
invited the poor to share food with them.
Today, as in the past,
the table or altar is decorated with candles, flowers, and a statue of St.
Joseph and the Christ Child. In the center is placed a bowl of uncooked
fava beans symbolizing the near-starvation experienced by
or ancestors or the hunger of the needy in our own communities or “paesi”.
In some areas an olive
branch is placed over the door designating that the home is open to anyone.
All are welcome to visit, pray, and eat. The parish priest blesses the
food, lights the candles, and recites the Rosary, then everyone proceeds to the
“Tavola” to eat together like the Holy Family.
So, what foods are
served at the St. Joseph’s Table? Traditionally no meat is served.
Instead vegetables, fruits, breads, and pastries are eaten. There are
vegetable “minestre” (thick soups), spaghetti sprinkled with toasted bread
crumbs (not cheese- symbolizing that they are too poor to have cheese),
spaghetti with sardines and fennel sauce, lentils, fave, all types of dried
beans with escarole or leafy vegetables, and breads made into religious shapes.
In Sicily the bread is
dried, toasted, sugared, and then grated into “Mollicu” (dialect for bread
crumbs), and then used on top of spaghetti. It resembles sawdust and is
symbolic of St. Joseph, the carpenter. In Abbruzzi “Cavezun” or
“Calzoni” is served. It is a baked turnover made of sweet dough filled
with ground nuts, chocolate, and mashed ceci. Near Bologna “Sfrappole”
are popular. These are strips of sweet dough knotted, fried, and sugared.
In Tuscany the specialty is a type of rice cake, and in Calabria, “Zeppole”,
fried and sugared bread dough. Many areas serve “Pane di San Giuseppe”,
a rich, sweet bread, or cookies shaped like “bones” of the dead.
Even after the party is
over one still savors the good food because no one is allowed to leave
empty-handed. All guests are given a goodie bag filled with bread and pastries
to enjoy latter.
Submitted by Eldora Perfilio
Information found in La Gazzetta Italiana
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