Solemnity of St. Joseph

March 19th marks the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary and Patron of the Universal Church. Although Lent is a time for penance and mortification, there are days that are special enough to warrant celebration even if they fall during the penitential days of Lent. This had greater importance in the past, when many Catholics did not eat any meat or dairy for the entire forty days and only had one full meal a day. Understandably, this made people somewhat weak and frail towards the end.

To allow people to relax a little on the whole penance thing, the Church made exceptions for certain feast days - called solemnities- during Lent. Two examples of these are the solemnitites for St. Joseph on the 19th and the Annunciation (when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to be the Mother of Jesus) on the 25th of March. Italians really tend to whoop it up on the Solemnity of St. Joseph, placing a statue of St. Joseph on their dinner tables and asking their priest to bless their breads and pastries. The bread is then given to the poor and the family eats the pastries. A traditional favorite is the Zeppole, a cream puff made in St. Joseph's (or San Giuseppe, as they call him) honor.