From WIKIPEDIA -- Italian Food/ Holiday Cuisine

"Every region has its own holiday recipes. In Sicily and other Italian communities worldwide, on March 19, La Festa di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph's Day), thanks are given to St. Joseph for preventing a famine in Sicily during the Middle Ages. The fava bean was the crop which saved the population from starvation, and is a traditional part of St. Joseph's Day altars and traditions. Other customs celebrating this festival include wearing red clothing, eating Sicilian pastries known as zeppole and giving food to the needy."

Saint Joseph [Notes on the Saint] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia..... Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary Venerated in all Christianity... Feast March 19 (Roman Catholicism)... Attributes Carpenter's square or tools, the infant Jesus, staff with lily blossoms...Patronage The Universal Church, workers, against doubt and hesitation and of a happy death... Saint Joseph (Hebrew יוֹסֵף, also known as Joseph of the House of David, Joseph the Betrothed, Joseph of Nazareth, Joseph the Worker and other titles) is known from the New Testament as the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus[1]. Although according to Christian tradition he was not the biological father of Jesus, he acted as his foster-father[2][3][4] and as head of the Holy Family. Joseph is venerated as a saint within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican Churches.... The genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew[5] says that Joseph's father was called Jacob; but according to the genealogy in the Gospel of Luke,[6] Joseph was a son of Heli. The canonical Gospels, however, give neither date and place of Joseph's birth nor of his death. All that is known from them is that Joseph lived at times in Nazareth in Galilee,[7] stayed for a couple of years in Bethlehem in Judea,[8] and was forced into exile for a time in Egypt.[9] .... Joseph was a "τεκτων"; traditionally the word has been taken to mean "carpenter",[10][11] though the Greek term is much less specific. It cannot be translated narrowly; it evokes an artisan with wood in general, or an artisan in iron or stone.[12] Very little other information on Joseph is given in the Gospels, in which he never speaks. He is mentioned in the Gospels as present on the visit to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12, but no mention can clearly be placed later than that one. Christian tradition, though vague on the time and place of his death, represents Mary as a widow during the adult ministry of her son.[citation needed] In Roman Catholic and other traditions, Joseph is the patron saint of workers and has several feast days. He was also declared to be the patron saint and protector of the universal Catholic Church (along with Saint Peter) by Pope Pius IX in 1870, and is the patron of several countries and regions. He is a rare example of a saint from the early days of the church whose religious role has tended to increase in the centuries since the Middle Ages. All the events involving Joseph's presence that have been narrated in the canonical Gospels happened before Jesus' birth or during his childhood. There is only an allusion to the first event, namely Joseph's betrothal to Mary, which made her his wife according to Jewish law.[13] The clarification has been added that they were not yet living together,[14] from which follows that they had not yet conducted the wedding rite known as the "home taking", which is the legal ceremony that permits Jewish couples to begin conjugal relations.[citation needed] The first event related in some detail is Joseph's dream, during which he is told by "an angel of the Lord" not only to take his wife Mary home ? in other words, to conduct the concluding legal wedding rite ?, rather than to be afraid for the reason that the child with which she is now pregnant is of the Holy Ghost, but also to name him Jesus, hence to assume legal paternity. The first command Joseph carries out, apparently promptly, the second in due time.[15] The next event is Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled as required by the Roman political authorities. He is accompanied by Mary who is heavily pregnant and who, whilst they are at Bethlehem, gives birth to Jesus.[16] Thereafter Joseph and his family are visited by a group of shepherds saying that they have been guided to them by an angel who told them the good news and its implications.[17] Eight days later, at the boy's circumcision ? as the angel had told Joseph when he commanded him to take Mary home ?, Joseph names him Jesus, and thus assumes legal paternity.[18] Wise Men from the east came to Jerusalem to "adore the Child." [19] Shortly thereafter, after completion of the post-natal cleansing prescribed by the Law of Moses, Joseph takes Mary and Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer the sacrifices required on the occasion of the birth of a couple's first son. Whilst doing so, he and his wife receive a blessing from the aged "just man" Simeon and listen to his words and those of the prophetess Anna ? two people who have been waiting eagerly for the salvation of their nation and perceive now the significance of the child before them.[20] Joseph leads Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt to escape from Herod (see Matthew 2:13-15), as depicted by Lorenzo Monaco (1405). The next event related is when Joseph is told by the angel in another dream of Herod the Great's plan to kill Jesus, and ordered to save the boy by taking him and his mother to Egypt, which he promptly does.[21] Once Herod had died, Joseph is told by the angel in a further dream to return with Jesus and his mother to the land of Israel; but when Joseph learns that Herod has been succeeded in Judea by Herod Archelaus, and Joseph worries on account of the latter's ill repute, a further dream guides him to the district of Galilee. And so Joseph takes mother and child to Nazareth and settles there.[22] The last event mentioning the presence of Joseph is the family's Passover visit to the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus is around 12 years old, hence coming to the end of his childhood.[23] The canonical Gospel accounts are silent about the life of Jesus and his family during the next couple of decades. They resume the narration when first John the Baptist, and then Jesus himself, commence their public ministries; but their accounts from thereon mention only the presence at certain events of Mary and never again that of Joseph. In apocryphal anecdotes Christ in the House of his Parents, by John Everett Millais. Apocryphal sources elaborate the terse canonical Gospel accounts. Thus they describe Jesus as working side by side with Joseph in Joseph's carpenter shop at Nazareth, and sometimes staying with Joseph while the latter worked. They also tell how Joseph made an important decision when he heard that Mary was pregnant before their arranged marriage and instead of allowing her to be stoned by townspeople, he took her away and protected her. In some Catholic traditions, Joseph is described as dying "in the arms of Jesus and Mary".[24][25] In the canonical Gospel accounts Jesus is described as being the brother of James, Joses (Matthew has the spelling: Joseph, Mark has Joses), Judas, and Simon, and of sisters whose names however are not mentioned.[26] The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that Joseph was a widower and that these brothers and sisters were children from his first marriage, thus making them Jesus' half-brothers and half-sisters. This version of events is related in the apocryphal History of Joseph the Carpenter, which names the eldest brother Justus and the sisters Assia and Lydia, but does not name the wife.[27] Catholic tradition, as taught by St. Jerome and the Fathers of the Church, teaches that the term "brother" in biblical times had a broader meaning and included cousins and other more distant relatives as well. Authoritative Orthodox sources contradict the History, retaining the Biblical name of the eldest son, names Joseph's first wife Salome, and his sisters Salome and Esther along with an unnamed third sister.[Authoritative primary source needed][28] The Roman Catholic tradition is clear, these "brothers and sisters" are the cousins of Christ and it also affirms strongly that Joseph remained celibate while married to Mary.[29] Some Protestant denominations (including many Evangelical Protestant traditions) no longer espouse strong views on the subject. In art Nativity by Martin Schongauer (1475-80). Up to about the 17th century Joseph tends to be depicted as a man advanced in years, with grey hair, often balding, occasionally frail and with arthritic fingers and a sharp nose, a comparatively marginal figure alongside Mary and Jesus if not entirely in the background, passive other than when leading them on their flight to Egypt. Joseph is shown mostly with a beard, not only in keeping with Jewish custom, but also because ? although the Gospel accounts do not give his age ? later literature tends to present him as an old man at the time of his wedding to Mary. This depiction arose to allay concerns about both the celibacy of the newly wedded couple[30], the mention of brothers and sisters of Jesus in the canonical Gospels,[31] and Joseph's other children spoken of in apocryphal literature ? concerns discussed very frankly by Jean Gerson for example, who nonetheless favoured showing him as a younger man.[32]In recent centuries ? in step with a growing interest in Joseph's role in Gospel exegesis ? he himself has become a focal figure in representations of the Holy Family. He is now often portrayed as a younger or even youthful man (perhaps especially in Protestant depictions), whether going about his work as a carpenter, or participating actively in the daily life of Mary and Jesus as an equal and openly affectionate member.[33] St Joseph sleeping, Nativity by Gentile da Fabriano. Full cycles of his life are rare in the Middle Ages, though the scenes from the Life of the Virgin or Life of Christ where he is present are far more often seen. The M?rode Altarpiece of about 1425, where he has a panel to himself, working as a carpenter, is an early example of what remained relatively rare depictions of him pursuing his m?tier.Some statues of Joseph depict his staff as topped with flowers, recalling the non-canonical Protoevangelion's account of how Mary's spouse was chosen by collecting walking sticks of widowers in Israel, and Joseph's alone bursting into flower, thus identifying him as divinely chosen. Several Eastern Orthodox Nativity icons show Joseph tempted by the Devil (depicted as an old man with furled wings) to break off his betrothal, and how he resists that temptation. There are some paintings with him wearing a Jewish hat. Joseph is normally associated with the color black, similar to his wife's association with blue. Accordingly, Sacrenoire is the analogue to the old French curse Sacrebleu [34]. Sainthood Although always regarded as a father, Joseph was little known on his own account until the later Middle Ages, following the adoption of his feast by the Franciscans in 1399, and later by the Dominicans. Due in part to the "goddess like granduer" accorded to his wife, Mary, Joseph was reduced to "an abject, even ludicrous old man who figured as "God's cuckold" in [medieval] legends and plays."[35] The feast was only added to the Roman Breviary in 1479, and was not compulsory for the whole Catholic church until 1621. An effort by some church leaders, including Jean Gerson, at the Council of Constance in 1416 to have Joseph elevated to a rank next to Mary and above the Apostles, with a universal feast of The Marriage of Mary and Joseph, was a step too far, and not successful. The promotion of devotions to Joseph was connected with the reaction against an over-courtly emphasis on the Holy Family in the preceding centuries, and reflected a wish to think of them again as a down to earth human family, encountering many difficulties in ordinary life.[36] Gerson had hoped to popularize the image of a young, virile, manly Joseph who safeguarded his wife's perpetual virginity by his own virtue and not by impotence. He also hoped that a strong patricarchal image could aid in dealing with the Great Schism.[37] In any case, with the de-emphasis of Mary's role from what it previously had been in the wake of Catholic Reformation, Joseph was able to step out of wife's shadow and be a person in his own right. Holy Family by James Collinson (19th century). Within the Roman Catholic tradition, Joseph is the patron saint of various things and places. Pope Pius IX proclaimed him the patron of the Universal Church on December 8, 1870. Joseph is the unofficial patron against doubt and hesitation, as well as the patron saint of fighting communism, and of a happy death. Joseph having died in the "arms of Jesus and Mary" according to Catholic tradition, he is considered the model of a pious believer who receives grace at the moment of death. In addition to his primary feast day in the Catholic and other traditions, St. Joseph is honored by the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker (May 1), introduced by Pope Pius XII in 1955 to counteract May Day, a union, workers and socialists holiday. This reflects St. Joseph's status as what many Catholics and other Christians consider the "patron of workers" and "model of workers." Catholic and other Christians teachings and stories about or relating to Joseph and the Holy Family frequently stress his patience, persistence, and hard work as admirable qualities which believers should adopt. In that tradition, Joseph is the patron saint of the New World; of the countries China, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Peru, Vietnam; of the regions Carinthia, Styria, Tyrol, Sicily; of the cities and/or dioceses of Florence, Turin, Baton Rouge, Bemidji, Buffalo, Cheyenne, Haugesund in Norway, Louisville, Nashville, San Jose, Sioux Falls, Hidalgo del Parral, etc. Roman Catholics also believe he prays especially for families, fathers, expectant mothers (pregnant women), travellers, immigrants, house sellers and buyers, craftsmen, engineers and working people in general. Official patronage assigned to him, however, is vague. Numerous geographical locations, some vocations and various circumstances of personal life have been attributed to his patronage (see Patron Saints Index: Saint Joseph link below). Feast days in Christian churches Statue of St Joseph and Jesus, Millegem Kerk. Veneration of Saint Joseph, when compared with that of other biblical saints, was introduced rather late in the Catholic Church. It was in the tenth century that he began to be celebrated in some parts of the West with a feast on 19 March. This feast was accepted in Rome only in 1479,[38] less than a century before the 1570 Tridentine Calendar, in which it was included. This is Saint Joseph's Day in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions. In 1847 Pope Pius IX declared Saint Joseph patron of the universal Church and instituted another feast, with an octave, to be held in his honour on Wednesday in the second week after Easter. This was abolished by Pope Pius XII, when in 1955 he established the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on 1 May (see General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII). Pope John XXIII added the name of Saint Joseph to the Canon of the Mass. The 19 March feast is a Solemnity and so is transferred to another date if impeded (for instance, if it falls on a Sunday within Lent. The 1 May celebration is an optional Memorial, and so is omitted if impeded........... For original texts with references see Wikipedia.

Back to main list