Italians Coming to America 

After Reconstruction following the Civil War, plantation owners had trouble finding labor to care for the crops, especially during harvest time. Louisiana had two major crops after the Civil War: cotton in north Louisiana and sugar cane in south Louisiana. Recruiters from the plantations went to Europe seeking a workforce for the crops, and the Sicilians answered the call, moving to the New World in large numbers between the late 1890s and late 1920s. The Sicilians brought their undeniable work ethic, Catholic faith, and traditions. 

Italians, mainly Sicilians, began trickling into the Houma-Thibodaux area in the late 1880s, lured here by work on the local plantations for sugar cane harvesting. The number of Italians increased in towns across the Diocese, starting with Thibodaux (1891), Houma (1892), Raceland, and Chacahoula (1894). 

 

Tradition and the Meaning of St. Joseph's Altars

The St. Joseph Altar tradition is based on a medieval story of famine and drought plaguing Sicily and rendering the ground empty and dead. The people of Sicily prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Sicily. They received the much-needed rain that saved the crops, livestock, and people. The people thanked St. Joseph by placing fruits, vegetables, and fava beans from the crops on a table for St. Joseph. Gradually, this became a yearly tradition, with the wealthy citizens placing buffets on St. Joseph's altar that would be given to the poor after the feast of St. Joseph passed. March 19th was made St. Joseph's feast day on Italy's Father's Day because of St. Joseph's fatherly role in Italy. 

These altar traditions are rich in symbology and reflect the Sicilian and Catholic culture. A St. Joseph Altar is split into three tiers representing the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Usually, it features a St. Joseph statue on the top tier. The altar can also include prayer cards, baskets for donations, palms, candles, and cloths in green and brown-- colors associated with St. Joseph. 

The food for St. Joseph's is particular, with the no meat being offered because of the holiday's propensity to land during Lent. Bread is shaped into crosses or carpenters' tools such as saws, hammers, and ladders, which tie back to St. Joseph, the Patron Saint of Carpenters. Olives, oranges, berries, garlic bulbs, figs, fava beans, artichokes, lemons, pastas, and fennel stalks are often included on St. Joseph's altars.

The altar also features almond cookies, biscotti, and pastries shaped like chalices, staffs, pyramids, and lambs. One of the breads is used in St. Joseph's Day Pasta, including the crumbs used as sawdust to dust the pasta since cheese wasn't used for the first St. Joseph's celebration.

A table is placed in front of the altar to represent the Holy Family, with some altars even featuring children posing as the "holy family" who "seek" a place to stay three times before being allowed to enter and eat a little of all the different dishes. The altar is then opened for others to view and remove St. Joseph's bread, holy salt, and fava beans. St. Joseph's breadcrumbs are believed to calm the winds of a storm or hurricane if thrown into the wind. Another belief is for women to "steal" a lemon from the altar to gain a husband before the next St. Joseph's Altar. The dry, roasted fava bean is thought to bring good luck to those who take one. 

One of the most essential elements of St. Joseph's altar features giving food and money to the poor from the altar. Since St. Joseph also represents the impoverished, giving food and money to those less fortunate is the correct way to distribute the food from the altar.

Another less popular tradition is a pilgrimage where the petitioner visits nine St. Joseph's altars, making a wish or petition at the ninth that is supposed to reflect the spirit of asking for St. Joseph's intercession. Some altars feature memorials to those who have passed on or are thanksgiving to St. Joseph for his intercession after a health scare or crisis. The last type of St. Joseph's Altar, questua, is unusual but features all its materials and donations being "begged for," representing the humility the Sicilians displayed in begging for help from Joseph. 

 

Celebrating St. Joseph's Altars in our Diocese

No historic St. Joseph's Altar accounts or descriptions were found in church records before the 1970s. Still, due to the lack of records that describe church parish life in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we have no proof of which churches may have had St. Joseph's Altars or the popularity of these altars with the French Catholic Cajuns.  

While St. Joseph's began in 1817, its first St. Joseph's altar was established in 2000. St. Joseph Co-Cathedral used to celebrate every St. Joseph festival day by having a high Mass and a forty-hour exposition of the Eucharist. They invited the Italian community to celebrate the feast of St. Joseph and participate in a small celebration after the High Mass, which unfortunately isn't specified in the records. 

St. Louis, the King of France Church in Bayou Blue had one of the first publicized St. Joseph's altars after the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux was formed in 1977. St. Louis' first St. Joseph's Altar began in 1980 and was a tradition for many years. Other church parishes and businesses like Cannata's have featured St. Joseph's Altars in the past, with last year featuring 13 church parishes and one residence included.

 
Research Materials for this article were provided by "Bread and Respect: The Italians of Louisiana" by A.V. Margavio and Jerome J. Salomone, "The Catholic Church in Louisiana" by Roger Baudier, yearofstjoseph.org, catholicculture.org, St. Joseph parish, previous Bayou Catholic articles, and parishioners of St. Joseph Co-Cathedral and St. Louis King of France, Bayou Blue.