Happy St. Joseph’s Day! 🇮🇹 During the Middle Ages, Sicilians prayed to St. Joseph for relief during a great drought and famine. He blessed them with rain and their food was restored. In the 1800s, many Sicilians immigrated to New Orleans and continued to honor the tradition of setting up large altars for Saint Joseph on March 19th (also Fathers’ Day in Italy). Today, St. Joseph’s day in New Orleans is also a day of celebration for Italian-American heritage, and the food and money offerings donated to the altars go to feed the hungry. If you visit a Saint Joseph altar today, be sure to take a goodie bag with you! According to Italian lore, the fava bean (the only food source that grew during the drought) will bring you good luck if you keep it in your wallet, and the bread is meant to be frozen until hurricane season. When a storm approaches, sprinkle the breadcrumbs around your home until it looks like the woodcarvings from Joseph’s workshop. The breadcrumbs are said to protect your home from storms! Don’t touch the lemons unless you want to get pregnant! 🍋 🫘 🍞 🍝 🍷 #StJoseph #StJosephsDay #ItalianAmerican #CatholicWitch #NolaCulture #NewOrleansCulture #Nola #NewOrleans #StJosephsDayAltar #ItalianWitch #ItalianAmericanWitch #Strega