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Texas Tavola Sicilian American Rituals of Food, Faith, and Family

Every spring in Bryan, Texas, Sicilian American women gather to build altars honoring Saint Joseph. Like Sicilian Americans elsewhere, they do so to safeguard the well-being of their loved ones and express thanksgiving. Houses are emptied of furniture to make way for weeks of community effort spent cooking and designing the altar, and the ritual culminates with a single family hosting nearly 1,000 guests in honor of Saint Joseph. Saint Joseph’s altars contain hundreds of hand-made decorative breads, cookies, and other food items and are accompanied by elaborate religious rituals and prayers spoken in Sicilian dialect. They don’t just occur on the Saint’s feast day, but punctuate the entire spring, providing rhythm, meaning, and structure to the lives of Sicilian American women. This eng

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