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Josephine Martellaro of Pueblo, Colorado, with the Saint Joseph's Day table she created at her home in 1990
Summary
The creation of a Saint Joseph's table, a tradition maintained by women in the Italian American community of Pueblo, Colorado, is one that derives from a centuries-old tradition on the family-plagued island of Sicily. According to the story, Sicilian peasants prayed to St. Joseph, the island's patron saint, to end the famine and suffering that was their lot. When their prayers were answered, the poor people of the island offered up in thanksgiving their most prized possession---food. Brought to Pueblo in the 1890s, the tradition has evolved into large, open-house events that feature tables laden with food, such as this one, photographed in 1990. Today, the tables are prepared to thank Saint Joseph for his assistance in helping families through all sorts of difficult times. Here, Josephine Martellaro is photographed with the Saint Joseph's table she prepared for public viewing in her home beginning at noon on March 18, the day before Saint Joseph's Day.
In the United States Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada - on the second Monday of October. The tradition of Thanksgiving started with the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. They first held a celebration of their harvest in 1621. The first national Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789. It became a holiday in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November should be celebrated as Thanksgiving. Since then it has been celebrated every year and is an official federal holiday that was moved to the fourth Thursday of November in 1941 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Many cities have large parades on Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps the largest and most famous parade is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Another popular way to spend the day is watching NFL football. The traditional food for the Thanksgiving meal includes a turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, vegetables, and pumpkin pie. Each year a live turkey is presented to the President of the United States who then "pardons" the turkey and it gets to live out its life on a farm.
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