Our St. Joseph Altar or Table.
How to Celebrate St. Joseph’s Day the Hallowed Home Way
“Tupa, tupa.” (Knock, knock.) No, it’s not the start of that old child’s joke, but rather the start of a tradition of Sicilian Americans celebrating St. Joseph’s Day. My mom, may she rest in peace, fondly recalled dressing up with her cousins as a child in her tiny Buffalo-area town and like the Holy Family going from door to door of their relatives’ homes. They would knock “tupa, tupa” and ask if there was room. As each door was opened they heard: Who is there? The response: Jesus, Mary, and Joseph seeking food and shelter. At the first two doors, it was the same reply: No room here. At the third door, they were warmly welcomed because that is where the St. Joseph Day Table (La Tavola di San Giuseppe) was being hosted that year.
But let’s back up a little before we have the feast and share how to celebrate it in your hallowed home…
What is St. Joseph’s Day?
St. Joseph’s Day is the feast day in the Catholic Church of St. Joseph the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. He is known for his trust in God, his protection of the Holy Family, his humility, and his hard work. While the saint has been celebrated in March since the year 800, it wasn’t until 1621 that Pope Gregory XV formalized March 19th for his feast. Sicilians have a special way of honoring him in their homes with St. Joseph Altars or Tables.
What is a St. Joseph Altar or Table?
The tradition of a St. Joseph Altar or Table traces back to medieval Sicily, where St. Joseph is revered as the island’s patron saint. According to legend, a severe drought struck the region, leading to devastating famine. Crops failed, livestock suffered, and people faced starvation. In desperation, the Sicilians turned to St. Joseph in prayer, vowing to honor him with a grand feast if he interceded and brought rain.
Sicilian countryside with sheep grazing (Source: public domain.)
Miraculously, the rains came, ending the drought and reviving the land. During the famine, the only crop that continued to thrive was the humble fava bean (also known as the broad bean), which was typically used as animal fodder. People resorted to eating these beans to survive, considering themselves fortunate to have them as a sustaining food source. In gratitude for this provision—along with the rains that ultimately saved the harvest—the people created bountiful altars laden with food as a thanksgiving offering. This act of gratitude evolved into an annual March tradition, the Feast of St. Joseph.
Sicilian immigrants brought this custom to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where it flourished—especially in communities with strong Italian roots. Today, St. Joseph Altars remain a powerful symbol of faith, family, food, thanksgiving and generosity.
Regional Traditions: New Orleans, Buffalo, and Beyond
The custom that originated in Sicily has taken on vibrant local flavors in American cities with large Sicilian-American populations.
In New Orleans, St. Joseph Altars are perhaps the most elaborate and widespread in the U.S., with Sicilian immigrants arriving in the late 1800s. Churches, homes, restaurants, and community centers build tri-tiered altars (three levels symbolizing the Holy Trinity) adorned with symbolic breads, fresh produce, candles, flowers, and statues of St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus. Public altars are blessed, food is shared—often with the needy—and events include parades like the St. Joseph’s Day Italian Parade, with many spots opening altars to visitors.
St. Joseph and the Child Jesus Statue. I found this 10-inch one at Amazon: https://amzn.to/4s1ueU5
In the Buffalo area, where my family ended up settling, the tradition thrives among the Italian-American community. Parishes, families, and societies create impressive St. Joseph’s displays featuring homemade specialties like pasta con sarde (pasta with sardines), frittatas, lentils, and intricately shaped breads. Altars are three-tiered with statues, lilies (for the saint’s purity and integrity), candles, fruits, vegetables, and symbolic items, serving as focal points for devotion, communal meals, and charity—reinforcing St. Joseph as patron of families and workers.
Other strongholds include Chicago, with church displays and family gatherings; other parts of Louisiana; and cities around the country. In Tampa’s historic Ybor City, with its deep Sicilian roots from the cigar industry era, Italian heritage events and clubs keep cultural traditions alive, though St. Joseph’s Day observances tend to focus more on community feasts and family customs rather than large public altars or parades.
My Family’s Traditions
As a third generation Sicilian, my experience tracks with my great-grandparents spending five years in Ybor City after emigrating from Santo Stefano Quisquina in that our focus was simply on food and family—privately, in the home. Altars from that the early era were modest but meaningful—as you can see from this photo with my great-grandmother Antonina.
Showing off the Altar: my great-grandmother Antonina (Anna) with some of her grandchildren, circa 1940.
Most include a picture or statue of St. Joseph at the center, surrounded by lemons and oranges (symbols of abundance), lilies, candles, and family photos. After St. Joseph, the food was the star, and there were always massive amounts. As I found in one of my mother’s handwritten notes on one of her St. Joseph’s Day menus, the tradition is, “turn no one away.” In fact, mom remembered that you were to invite the less fortunate over to share your blessings. Another custom is to have an older man sit at the head of the table to represent St. Joseph. Mom also recounted how the family hosting that year would give out small bags of goodies—an orange, a prayer card of the saint, anise bread (see below), and some “lucky” fava beans.
Remembering my mom and dad on the Altar.
Unbeknownst to me, my mom had this golden icon of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus; I discovered it amongst her belongings after she passed away.
Growing up, we did not have an altar per se but we did have a table with numerous foods particular to the feast. Mom baked breads shaped or braided into a cross or St. Joseph’s cane or a saw. The bread had to be Great Aunt Marion’s made from a delightful silky dough flavored with anise seed (traditional) or extract. (Excellent toasted for breakfast the next day!)
Two photos above: St. Joseph bread formed into cross and cane; the famous fava beans in foreground.
Aunt Marion’s treasured recipe – the beloved bread baker of la famiglia!
Dishes are meant to be meatless (especially since the feast originated during times when no meat was eaten during Lent), but if it fell on a Sunday, then fennel sausage, peppers and onions and spaghetti and meatballs were added. Other favorites are listed below in our guide to making your own Tavola. Of note, the highlight of dessert is sfinge—light, fried pastries dusted with powdered sugar. Being of poor peasant background, ours were not filled with ricotta or cream. Just a simple choux pastry. Delightful! My dad, brother, and I waited for sfinge all year long.
The tradition going strong in Florida circa 2020; my mom Sally making sfinge in her retirement; that’s the powdered sugar by her right arm.
Grandma Sarah’s sfinge recipe in her signature spindly script. Note: the important ingredients of “6 eggs” and “powdered sugar” are listed in the directions section. Also, there is more than one way to spell the confection, including spinge with a “p” and Grandma’s inventive phonetic version here.
Starting Your Own Tradition: How to Create a St. Joseph Altar in Your Hallowed Home
Of course, you don’t need to be Sicilian or have a huge space to create your own St. Joseph Altar in your hallowed home. This is a heartfelt way to celebrate him, invite his intercession for your family, and thank him for answered prayers.
Here’s a simple guide to get started:
- Choose your setup — Use a table or shelf with three tiers (boxes or crates work great) to represent the Holy Trinity. Cover with a white cloth (traditionally lace) for purity. I used a shoe box with a hinged lid supported by water bottles (and lots of tape!) to create ours.
- Center the saint — Place a statue or image of St. Joseph at the top tier. Surround it with fresh flowers like lilies (mine are fakes from Hobby Lobby: http://bit.ly/4un5p6F), candles, and holy cards.
- Add symbolic foods — Some fun and flavorful St. Joseph’s Day foods:
- Breads shaped as St. Joseph’s cane, tools or as crosses or fish — both “regular” Italian bread and St. Joseph’s anise bread
- Soups such as this center-piece fava bean soup or this one (for luck–some Sicilians were superstitious it seems), lentil soup, or egg-drop soup with tiny acini di pepe (seeds of a pepper) pasta
- Fruits especially lemons and oranges to represent abundance.
- Pasta dishes without meat and substituting mudrica (browned breadcrumbs) for cheese to represent St. Joseph’s workshop’s sawdust
- Vegetables: stuffed artichokes, breaded fried eggplant, breaded fried cauliflower, breaded fried burdocks, dandelion greens salad (we ate ours in pita bread), and tomato and onion salad.
- Meatless Mains: frittatas, fried smelt, “white pizza” (garlic, olive, oil, Pecorino-Romano cheese, salt, and pepper), and “red pizza” (tomato, onion, and cheese).
- Sweets like sfinge, biscotti, cuccidati (fig cookies), tetù (chocolate spice cookies) and lemon pie.
- Extras: shafts of wheat or raw spaghetti in a vase, wine, olives, olive oil, pickled eggs, and pickled beets
- Incorporate meaning — Include a basket for prayer petitions, photos of loved ones (living or deceased), prayer cards of deceased family, and symbols of gratitude. Bless the altar if you wish, perhaps with a short prayer asking St. Joseph’s protection (see below).
- Share the bounty — Invite family, friends, or those in need to partake. The tradition emphasizes charity. When shopping for your feast, picking up extra spaghetti, jarred sauce, or beans for donation to a charity is a classic Hallowed Home move.
Here’s a guide to what’s on our table this year.
I sourced this heavy-ish lace-like tablecloth https://amzn.to/3Ngk8zF for a good price and made sure it would fit my dining table so I can use it year-round, another Hallowed Home hack. If I had a lace one that had been handed down to me, I definitely would have used it.
Ours is fairly basic and representative, and of course the fare would typically extend to the family table in full-size portions. Yours can be as simple or elaborate as fits your life. We suggest starting small with a statue or framed picture on a small table, a candle, and a few foods of your choosing. The key is the intention: thanksgiving for St. Joseph’s intercession. Done with love in the spirit of all who have created these celebratory Tavola meals before us can make this annual ritual laden with meaning as well as bounty (and deliciousness!).
As I reflect on these traditions, I can’t help but think my mom, looking down from Heaven, would be pleased. From her “Tupa, Tupa” tales to passing on family food traditions, she shared her joy for St. Joseph’s Day that lives on in our hallowed home—and, we hope, in yours as well.
St. Joseph, pray for us! Viva San Giuseppe!
TRADITIONAL ST. JOSEPH PRAYER
O God, who in your unspeakable providence deigned to choose
blessed St. Joseph to be the spouse of your own holy Mother:
grant, we beseech you, that we may deserve to have him
as our intercessor in heaven,
whom we venerate as our protector on earth.
Bless this home and family through his merits;
may his watchful care shield us,
as he shielded the Holy Family,
from every adversity.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Three generations in the kitchen: my mom (Sally), Grandma Sarah (Rosaria), and me; circa 1990.