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22

MY

ROUSES

EVERYDAY

MARCH | APRIL 2014

St. Joseph’s Day:

Making the Altar

by

Tina —Rouses Bakery Manager, Houma +

photos by

Matthew Noel

I

was born in the small town of Chiusa

Scalfani, which is near Palermo, Italy.

When I was eleven years old my family

and I immigrated to the United States to

be near my father’s sister, Aunt Maria, who

lived in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

From Italy we brought with us many

traditions, including honoring Saint Joseph.

My father, brothers, sister, and I would help

my mother prepare our altar from scratch

each year.  Then, as a family, we would visit

all of the other altars in Thibodaux.

Last year, I was really excited to be a part of

the first Saint Joseph’s Altar at the Rouses

Market inHouma.  It took weeks of planning,

and days to prepare the food.  At that time,

my mother had just passed away, and I looked

at this as an opportunity to honor her.  I used

some of her things on our Rouses’ altar: a

Saint Joseph picture that came from Sicily,

some of her china, and a flag.

FAMINE, FEAST & FAVA BEANS

In the Middle Ages when Sicily was suffering from a severe

drought, the faithful prayed fervently to St. Joseph, the patron

saint of the family, to end their suffering. When the rains finally

came, a bumper crop of fava beans grew, saving the people from

starvation. In thanks, Italians promised to honor and remember

this great favor with altars adorned with food and erected each

year in St. Joseph’s honor.

—Poppy Tooker

I made the “sawdust” for the altar, which I

would later use in a Pasta Milanese for my

family. We also baked bread in traditional,

symbolic shapes, like ladders, hammers,

nail, crosses, palms, wreaths, grapes and

twists.

On St. Joseph’s Day, the Bishop came to the

store to bless our altar. We also handed out

fava beans to shoppers.  At the end of the

day, the nuns came to pick up the food to

distribute to the needy, which is custom.

Rouses St. Joseph Day Altar, Houma