Customer Reviews

St. Joseph Altars

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Growing up in a Sicilian family in the 50's, the St Jospeh Altar was a labor of love for my parents. I can recall the women gathered around the kitchen table with their own special paring knives for making cookies and secret recipes for the traditional dishes of their homeland. The photographs are a vivid reminder of those tables laden with so many pastries with the strange sounding names.

Although this book is seen from the celebrations in New Orleans, it still captures the story of the St Joseph Altar with the prayers and rituals of the occassion. I can still hear the beautiful sung Litany of St Joseph translated into English in this book, and taste the crunch of "mudica" (toasted breadcrumbs)on the pasta. This book would be a treasure to hand down to your children as you tell them of their grandparents and great-grandparents or as a gift for anyons who remembers San Guiseppe's feast day. It is a scrapbook of a time past for most Sicilian familes who have blended into the cultural melting pot, and a reminder of a heritage that should be kept alive for future generations.

A beautiful book with super pictures. If you cannot come to New Orleans to see the St. Joseph Altars in person, then at least buy the book and enjoy the pictures. The Feast of St. Joseph is on March 19th.

Because of my devotion to St Joseph, I wanted to have a St. Joseph altar at our church. After 17 years of "wanting to" with the help of (St Joseph) this book and many friends of St Joseph from our church, this dream became a reality in 2007. This book not only gives you ideas of how to do your first St. Joseph Altar, but it also gives you original recipes to make and put on the altar. From St Joseph Bread to St Joseph sawdust to top the traditional pasta dish served with a hard boiled egg, it's all here to make your first altar a success like ours!

i bought two of these; one for our former pastor - priest
and one for our altar society; it is just wonderful

This book brought back so many fond memories of when I was growing up in a little town north of New Orleans. My parents were from New Orleans and of Italian descent, and this book is reminiscent of so many things I experienced as a child. My mother made a St. Joseph's Altar for 17 years until she was no longer able to do so, and I was thrilled to find recipes for so many of the dishes she prepared in this book!