NOLA Notes

This weekend, Pete, SoMo and I are hitting the streets to check out some St. Joseph altars. I somehow managed to be born and raised a Catholic in New Orleans and yet never been to a St. Joseph altar.

Why my sudden interest in the altars? I owe this interest to my mother-in-law. About this time last year she mentioned to me how she missed St. Joseph altars. Huh? Don’t they have them everywhere, I asked her. No. Turns out they are in several big cities, like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. But the biggest display of them is in my own backyard. Well, I’ll be damned. That’s just the sort of thing that perks my interest right up.

But what is a St. Joseph altar, you ask? The altars are Sicilian in origin and pay homage to Christ’s “earthly father,” Sicily’s patron saint, who, the Sicilians believe, came to their aid with rain during a terrible famine. By way of thanks, the people of Sicily prepared a table with foods they had harvested as a result of the rain. Why are the altars so big in Louisiana? Well, apparently Louisiana has more Sicilians per capita than any other U.S. state. I had no idea.

A St. Joseph altar is first and foremost a display of food prepared by the parishioners and displayed for the public. The altars are usually built in someone’s home or a church vestibule and not the altar of the church. The food that is prepared is then blessed and distributed to charities.

There is much symbolism in the food prepared. Breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries are often baked in symbolic Christian shapes: chalices, crosses, doves, lambs, fish, wreaths, and palms. Symbols of St. Joseph are also plentiful: lilies, staffs, sandals, ladders, saws, hammers, and nails. Also, the food itself can be symbolic: Like there being no meat on an altar (because the feast falls during Lent); or the breadcrumbs that represent sawdust to symbolize St. Joseph the Carpenter; or twelve whole fish that represent the apostles; or wine that is symbolic of the Miracle at Cana.

Another interesting thing: Petitions of the faithful are written on pieces of paper and placed in baskets on the altar. Photographs of the faithfully departed generally decorate the altar as well.

And the most interesting thing of all? The goodie bag. Yes, I said goodie bag. I love this part especially.

Visitors to St. Joseph altars are given small paper bags containing a few blessed items from the altar. The bags can contain a holy card and/or a small medal. Locally, the bags usually have bread in them. And cookies. The bread is usually not eaten but saved and broken up and spread across the thresholds of homes to protect the homes in storms. I bet there were a lot of breadcrumbs left out to stave off Katrina.

But the most interesting item found in the goodie bag is the fava bean. In Sicily, the fava was fed to the cattle. During famines, the Sicilians ate the beans to survive and considered themselves lucky to have the beans. Thus, the fava bean is also known as a “lucky bean.” Some believe that a pantry that contains a fava bean will never be bare.

As a child, I always had a lucky bean in my change purse. I didn’t think about it; I just carried it. Each year, I’d get a new one. Looking back, I realize it was the closest thing I did to attending a St. Joseph’s altar.

I had lunch with my sister this weekend. She helped bake fig cookies for a St. Joseph’s altar. She explained that you are supposed to carry not one but three lucky beans in your wallet–for, she was told, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. She gave me all three of her beans (she can replenish her stash). Apparently, I will never be without money in my wallet.

So, I am going to dip my toes in some Christian ceremony this weekend. In the NOLA area and want to check it our yourself? Click here to find where and when the altars are being displayed.