Lafayette,LA(KLFY) St. Joseph’s Feast is March 19th, but you can see St. Joseph’s Altars set up in places like Vermilionville and other churches across Acadiana.

“We always have Saint Joseph’s during Lent, and Lent is a big thing for the Catholics,” says Belle Roullete who is visiting from Valcherie, La.

The history dates back to the late 1800s in Italy, when a famine drove Sicilians to leave their homes and migrate to New Orleans.

Jay Steiner, a blacksmith and tour guide at Vermilionville says St Joseph’s Altar became of importance because of the immigrants that ‘reached this land of new opportunity,

where there was enough food for everyone to go around, but still keeping in their mind the experience what their families and neighbors had gone through with the famine.”

From New Orleans, the Italian culture then spread to Acadiana , which is why there are St. Joseph’s Altars set up across Catholic churches here

and even at La Chapelle of Vermilionville with a Cajun twist

“So the purpose of it is to bring offerings of food and other items to the church, that later give to those less fortunate, to the poor, and to the needy,” says Steiner.

Saint Joseph is seen as a symbol of charity.