The historic Beauregard-Keyes House will resume its practice of honoring of St. Joseph’s Day with an altar this year along with a concert of Italian classics. The public is welcome to join staff and volunteers in marking this sacred Sicilian tradition, which has been celebrated in the French Quarter since Sicilian immigrants began arriving in the city in the late 19th century.
Every March 19, New Orleans Catholics celebrate St. Joseph’s Day by constructing elaborate altars of bread, fruits, vegetables, seafood, cakes, and other food items and statuary to honor the relief St. Joseph provided during a famine in Sicily. The tradition began in the late 1800s when Sicilian immigrants settled in New Orleans but has since been adopted by families and churches of other ancestries.
The Beauregard-Keyes House will host a St. Joseph’s Day altar, a tradition that has long been part of the Lower French Quarter after it became an Italian immigrant enclave in the late 19th century. Photo courtesy of the Beauregard-Keyes House.
The altar will open on Wednesday, March 17 through St. Joseph’s Day, Friday, March 19 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Father Damian Zablocki will bless the altar in a private ceremony of March 17, at 10 a.m., after which the public will be invited to visit and learn more about this important ritual. Beauregard-Keyes House will be accepting culinary and financial contributions from the public. Anyone who would like to contribute may email Chris Fountain ([email protected]) for additional details.
Each visitor will be given the traditional prayer card, cookie, bread, and a lucky fava bean. According to Sicilian lore, after rains arrived in drought-stricken Sicily, fava beans were among the first crops to regenerate and alleviate starvation conditions. Symbolically, if a fava bean token from an altar is kept in a kitchen, the family will never go hungry. As in previous St. Joseph’s altars at the Beauregard-Keyes House, a collection will be taken up for Covenant House New Orleans. Space will be limited inside the building. Masks and social distancing are required.
On Sunday, March 21, Beauregard-Keyes House will host a concert of Italian classics by New Orleans’ own Electric Yat Quartet. The program, sponsored in part by Beattie’s Distillers, will include performances of works by Vivaldi, Puccini, Morricone, and many more as we celebrate the history of the Lower French Quarter, a neighborhood within a neighborhood once known as “Piccolo Palermo.”
The Electric Yat Quartet is a fun, energetic, and unique ensemble made up of violinists Natalia Cascante and Harry Hardin, violist Amelia Clingman, and cellist Jack Craft. To ensure safety, in addition to the concert being held outside, guests will be asked to remain socially distanced and are required to wear a mask. More information can be found at bkhouse.org, where tickets may be purchased for limited remaining seats. Live-stream tickets are also available for $10 per device.
For a list of St. Joseph’s altars on view at Catholic churches across the metro area, visit this link.
