St. Joseph's Day

St. Joseph's Day is apparently a big deal here in New Orleans. I had never really heard of it before and didn't know of any traditions associated with it. I thought it was really interesting and so I wanted to share a bit about it with y'all:

It falls on March 19th each year (last Tuesday). It celebrated Joseph, Mary's husband and Jesus's step-father (Is that his proper title?). The holiday is mostly celebrated by Italians and Italian-Americans. In the United States, New Orleans has the largest tradition of celebrating St. Joseph's day.

Churches, schools, and homes can build altars to Joseph. The altars have lots of food, candles, pictures, plants, and statues displayed. They are usually open to the public. The doorway to the building is marked with a green branch to let passersby know their is an altar inside. At each altar, visitors are given a dried fava bean for good luck and some free treats or cookies. The fava bean tradition comes from Sicily where they say that if you carry the bean you will never go broke. Some of the altars also offer free meals or feasts. My parents and I went to two different altars. One at De La Salle High School and another at St. Stephen's Church on Napoleon. Here are some pictures:

St. Stephen's altar

St. Stephen's altar

De La Salle High School's altar

(I didn't take this picture, but I did want to show the Fava Beans)