When I was 6 years old, my grandmother clasped my hand and walked me down a few steps to a church basement.

The lively scene inside made a huge impression on me.

Hundreds of people dressed in red crowded around tables listening to a festive band.

Parish ladies mounded pasta, frittata, salads and breaded fried vegetables on our plates.

The ladies had fashioned a huge decorative table, placing a statue of St. Joseph on fancy linens and surrounding it with loaves of bread shaped like St. Joseph's staff. Flowers, candles, fruit baskets wrapped with red ribbon and a sea of cakes and pastries made it a sight to behold.

My parents put money in the donation basket, and a parish lady handed us a piece of blessed bread, a picture of St. Joseph and a dried fava bean for luck, so we would always escape the famines that plagued Sicily, where the St. Joseph table custom -- and my grandmother -- originated.

(I have never figured out what to do with the blessed bread. Would it be disrespectful to eat it, or would it make you holy? Generally I just wait until it gets stale and throw it out when no one's looking.)

Later, we took sweets and the special cream puff for St. Joseph's Day, the cherry-topped zeppole, for dessert.

So that got me hooked. I've been going to St. Joseph's tables every year since.

I've learned that, back in Europe, Catholics would pray to St. Joseph to heal a sick family member. If the person got well, the grateful family would prepare a feast on St. Joseph's Day, March 19, and invite the poor of the town to eat. I have no idea what they would do if the person didn't get well.

When Italians came to Chicago, they often transferred the custom to churches and restaurants. Parishioners and restaurateurs donate the food and ask the diners to make contributions for the needy.

Often, St. Joseph's tables open with a procession from church to parish hall, with the Knights of Columbus showing off their dramatic plumed hats. They're followed by a pageant in which people dressed as a hungry and ragged Mary and Joseph are welcomed to the table.

Lately, Poles, Mexicans, Filipinos and others have joined the fun. A St. Joseph's table I went to last year offered tamales.

St. Patrick's Day gets a lot more publicity, it is true. Like everyone else, we fans of the carpenter can barely turn around in March without bumping into shamrocks.

We are used to having our little holiday ignored as newscasts lead with the Dooley Brothers and people flit off to drink green beer.

Yet all of us need as many holidays as we can to prevent these last miserable days of winter from putting us over the edge.

Why not celebrate both?

If you overdo it on green beer, there's no better comfort than a robust plate of pasta.

Area St. Joseph table events:

March 9

• Saint Anthony of Padua Church*, 1010 Ferguson St., Rockford. 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (815) 226-8092.

• St. Celestine Church, 3020 N. 76th Court, Elmwood Park. Noon to 2 p.m. (708) 452-4654.

• Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii*, 1224 W. Lexington St., Chicago. Mass 11 a.m., table noon to 3 p.m. (312) 421-3757.

March 14

• Missionary Sisters of St. Charles, Scalabrinian Provincial Guild, 1414 N. 37th Ave., Melrose Park. 4 to 9 p.m. (708) 343-2162.

March 15

• Alta Villa Banquets, 430 N. Addison Road, Addison. $45 includes dinner, open bar, live music and dancing. (630) 543-1222.

March 16

• Shrine of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel*, 1101 N. 23rd Ave., Melrose Park. Procession 11 a.m., Mass noon, table follows Mass. (630) 217-7415.

• St. Peter the Apostle, 524 N. Rush St., Itasca. (630) 773-1272.

• St. Charles Borromeo, 288 E. Jefferson, Hampshire. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. (847) 683-2391.

• Mazzini-Verdi Club, 9230 W. Belmont Ave., Franklin Park. 2 p.m. Mass, 3 p.m. table. $25. (708) 366-8435.

*Considered among the most authentic.