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.