Feast of St. Joseph
Mob Blog: The Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 2014
La Fiesta di San Giuseppe, the Feast of St. Joseph, is celebrated today. This is a day Italians celebrate, in much the same way as the Irish celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, although we’ll supplant the green with a little vino. And pastry. And prayer, of course.
St. Joseph is the patron saint of Sicily, and the Feast of St. Joseph is celebrated to honor the spouse of the Virgin Mary. It’s a day to be thankful for what you have and to help those who are needy—a day to feed the hungry.
It’s customary to wear red on the Feast of St. Joseph. Fish-shaped bread and cross-buns are also part of St. Joseph’s celebrations, as is the Fava Bean. This little bean is credited with saving the lives of Sicilians during the famines of the middle-ages and has come to symbolize the festa. It’s considered good fortune to eat the bean on St. Joseph’s Day, as well as to receive a “lucky” bean.
Altars are erected in gratitude of St. Joseph’s bounty, displaying statues of St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother, along with candles and flowers and traditional Sicilian wine and pastry, most notably zeppole, which are fried puffed shells filled with ricotta or custard or Italian cream, and fig stuffed cookies called cuccidati.
It’s advisable to attend Mass before the feast.
The best place to celebrate the Feast of St. Joseph—apart from traveling to Sicily—is in New Orleans. The Italian Amercian Marching Club does an annual parade on the Saturday before the Feast of St. Joseph, with a prime French Quarter route. Incidentally, New Orleans was a destination for late nineteenth and early twentieth century Sicilian immigrants. Sicilian’s settled in the French Quarter even before the mass immigrations began at Ellis Island, giving New Orleans a heritage that is rich in Italian culture.
It’s no coincidence that the main character in my “Louie Morelli” series is from New Orleans. The city is also the setting for my novel, Louie Morelli’s Mistress.
Patricia Bellomo is the author of the crime and mob thriller books Louie Morelli’s Mistress, Stella di Mare, and Louie Morelli’s Daughter. Books available at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and on all e-readers.
