Paper Short Abstract:

This paper investigates the contemporary food ritual of Saint Joseph's Day 'tables' in Italy, asking how traditional practices are being 'reinvented' in the context of globalisation, mass tourism, trans-Mediterranean migration, and an increased attention to food traditions.

Paper Abstract:

Tavole di San Giuseppe, Saint Joseph’s Tables, are an annual food ritual in parts of southern Italy, and are especially prevalent in central Sicily. Large Tables are filled with an array of dishes to mark Saint Joseph’s Day on 19 March, with care taken to lay the Table attractively, and to convey abundance. Historically the poorest local residents, especially children, were invited to dine at the Table. Both the format and the context of food rituals in Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean are undergoing “reinventions … redefining and interpreting tradition in the face of multiple pressures and encroachments” (Grasseni 2017). How, and to what extent, are the Tables also being “reinvented”, and what new meanings are coming to be symbolised by them?

In some cases, Saint Joseph’s Day is no longer primarily associated with feeding the poor, although in Salemi in central Sicily, for example, the practice has been “reframed” as an act of generosity towards recently-arrived asylum seekers. Elsewhere, it is encouraged as a local folk tradition, promoting the area’s visibility to culinary tourists. Using ethnographic fieldwork, we identify how the Tables are being “reinvented” in the context of globalisation, mass tourism, trans-Mediterranean migration, and an increased attention to food traditions, asking what new meanings the ritual is acquiring in the twenty-first century.