Special, food-filled altars begin to spring up around south Louisiana on or about March 19, the feast of St. Joseph. It’s a custom brought to New Orleans beginning in the late 1800s by Sicilian immigrants and that has migrated from there across Catholic south Louisiana. I’ve always assumed it was widespread in Italian-American communities across the country, but apparently that’s not exactly right.
Nara Maria Ersilia Crowley did an extensive study of “The Expansion of the St. Joseph Altar in south Louisiana” for her 2010 LSU master’s thesis. She says St. Joseph altars are “a distinctive tradition that has swept throughout south Louisiana since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.” The tradition can be found around the world, she says, but “south Louisiana offers more celebrations of the St. Joseph Altar than in all of North America.”
Part of the reason for that, according to her research, is because Louisiana “has the distinction of having the largest population of Italians of Sicilian descent in the United States” and because we also have a strong Catholic tradition.
St. Joseph is regarded as a patron saint in Sicily, and the altars began there in thanksgiving for his preventing a famine during the Middle Ages. According to legend, there was a severe drought in Sicily in the 1500s and the people prayed to St. Joseph to bring them rain. The rain did come and the people held a large banquet in celebration. That year’s fava bean crop saved them from starvation and ever since has been a traditional part of St. Joseph’s Day altars.
An altar in south Louisiana will typically be bedecked with flowers, candles, wine, fava beans, specially prepared cakes and the deep-fried dough balls called zeppola. Some of the foods may be mixed with bread crumbs to represent sawdust, since St. Joseph was a carpenter. Since the day usually falls during Lent, the altar is traditionally meatless.
According to Crowley, “The breads, cakes, and cookies have specific designs and ingredients that have symbolic (meanings).” For example, the largest bread loaf is typically formed to resemble a crown of thorns. Smaller loafs are formed into a heart, a cross, a chalice, or St. Joseph’s beard.
Although there are perishable foods on the altars, most of the breads, cookies and cakes are wrapped and given to charities after the altar is “broken.” This is done after a ceremony called tupa, tupa, which means “tap, tap” or “knock, knock.” It is meant to reenact the Holy Family seeking shelter. Children dressed in costume knock at three doors asking for food and shelter. At the first two they are refused. At the third door, the place where the altar has been erected, they are welcomed in.
There is also special significance to the fava bean. It has come to represent good luck and financial security. According to tradition, someone who carries a fava bean will never go broke.
While some of these elements are found in celebrations of St. Joseph’s altars in other places, Crowley’s research led her to decide that “the singular character of the expansion of the St. Joseph Altar in south Louisiana . . . (is) that it is unique.”
It is unique among people of Sicilian descent who live here, and it is unique because it has spread throughout the cultural mix that makes south Louisiana itself unique.
In south Louisiana, she concludes, “(The) interface (of) the Catholic Creole and Cajun culture with Sicilian tradition (creates) a blend of distinctive identity. . . . The St. Joseph Altar in Louisiana is not simply a memorable experience — it is a distinctive cultural branch of a tree that is sturdy and blooming, much like the traditional Live Oak of Louisiana.”
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, Cajuns and Other Characters, is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589.
