March Meeting Celebrates St. Joseph’s Table Tradition

By Nancy DeSanti

Guest Speaker Kirsten Keppel

Our second program of the year on March 24, 2019, will celebrate the St. Joseph’s Table tradition and feature the film made by AMHS member Kirsten Keppel. Her halfhour film, which was screened by the National Italian American Foundation last March, tells the story of the Tavola di San Giuseppe tradition as passed down through generations of Italian Americans.

Kirsten will also talk about how she made the film and what this special tradition means to the Italian-American community writ large. Kirsten’s film, “Ringraziamenti: The St. Joseph’s Table Tradition,” was a semi-finalist of the 2017 Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum and was first shown at the NIAF Gala. She will explain how St. Joseph’s Table represents an ancient tradition that goes back to the Middle Ages, as legend has it, to a time when there was an especially severe drought in Sicily. No rain fell for a long time, so no crops would grow and famine was widespread.

The people prayed to God for rain, and they also prayed to St. Joseph to intercede with God on their behalf, promising that if God caused it to rain, they would have a special feast in honor of St. Joseph. Miraculously, the rains came and the crops were planted. With the harvest, the people prepared a feast of foods from those crops, and this became known as La Tavola di San Giuseppe. Families prepared huge buffets and invited the less fortunate people of the village, especially the homeless and sick. Kirsten will tell us how nowadays the tradition is still practiced in Sicily and worldwide, especially in Italian-American communities of Sicilian descent.

The St. Joseph’s Table tradition was brought to America in the late 19th and early 20th century by Sicilian immigrants to Louisiana, Texas, California, Colorado and New York.

St. Joseph’s Table

The celebration takes place on or close to St. Joseph’s feast day of March 19 and represents hospitality and nurturing in the making and fulfill ing of promises. In Sicily, a society that was kin-oriented and closed to outsiders, the tradition provided a way for the women to open their homes to strangers in an accepted manner as well as to fulfill the promise made to St. Joseph. Kirsten will give her presentation at Alfio’s La Trattoria in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Afterwards, there will be a question and comment period, and the group is encouraged to share their experience with other traditions.