The tradition of the “St. Joseph Table” of food (“la tavala di San Giuseppe”)  has its origins in Sicily. Legends from the Middle Ages attributed the  end of a devastating drought to a prayer-devotion that the Sicilian  people made to St. Joseph. This celebration is a symbolic “thank you”  and renewal of the Sicilian people’s devotion to Saint Joseph. It is a shared celebration with the entire community where the riches of food are given as alms to the poor: Traditional etiquette is that no one can be turned away from this table.  As it is a living  tradition, it has many interpreters and many food entries have been  added and deleted along the way but two constants remain: no meat and  sesame-coated breads in symbolic shapes.