Annual altar a ‘labor of love’ for Holy Ghost teacher

Linda Owens has fond memories while growing up in Hammond when her family had two St. Joseph’s altars.

It’s a tradition that for the past 22 years she has carried over to Holy Ghost School in Hammond, including flipping pages in her mother’s cookbook for family recipes.

Initially launched in her fourth-grade class, the Owens’ altar expanded into the school gym and eventually was featured in the church’s Parish Hall. But this year, the altar went Broadway, set up in the rear of the church, the first sight parishioners saw as they entered to attend Mass.

“It’s a labor of love and I understand why,” said Owens, who has taught fourth grade at Holy Ghost since 1994.

Owens said the idea of creating a St. Joseph’s altar came to her several years after she had been at the school. She explained during that time school administrators had a desire for teachers to develop a monthly theme for their students.

When the calendar flipped to March, for Owens the choice was obvious.

“We were always doing something for St. Patrick’s Day, and I said why don’t we do something for St. Joseph,” she said. “(The students) did not know anything about it but I did (because of having the Joseph’s altars in her childhood home).”

“It started in the classroom,” Owens added. “Technically it was supposed to be a replica.”

Each year she began jotting notes about what she needed and what was needed to complete the annual altar.

As the altar expanded, Owens’ mother, who passed away a few years ago, became involved to the point where she was cooking from 17 to 19 gallons of red gravy to be served with the spaghetti dinners on St. Joseph’s Day.

After her death, the sauce spoon was passed to Owens.

“I just did what she did,” she said with an emotion-laden chuckle.

Through the years, the altar has become much more than an Italian smorgasbord. Indeed Owens has turned the annual feast into a religious education tool.

“I had to learn more about the St. Joseph’s altar in order to teach it,” Owens said.

As March approaches, she begins educating the fourth graders about the altar and its origins. She also explains the Italian terms and food associated with the altar and their meanings.

“Like why do you have the lamb,” she said. “Because it is the symbol of the Lamb of God.”

The decanter of wine on the altar represents the consecration of water to wine during Mass and the wedding feast at Cana, the site of Jesus’ first miracle when he turned water into the wedding wine.

She also plays a video originally recorded with friends and family making the food.

“They were talking and going over the different images of altars and preparing them,” she said.

In the past a Hammond bakery traditionally baked and donated  the bread but Owen’s mother also took on that chore.

“She made a lot of bread, made the gravy, the cookies, bread crumbs and roasted the fava beans,” she said.
 

Owens also requires students to look up images of the items on the altar and draw their own photos, with certain items having to be placed in certain positions on the artwork.

“It counts as a test grade,” she said. The colorful drawings were also placed in the back of the church.

Owens developed a crossword puzzle as an additional educational; tool and also made a bingo game, using paper plates for the card and fava beans as the markers.

“Then we take a test,” she said. “They learn it.”

Owens said prep time when the altar was in the parish hall averaged about two days. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire student body was invited to a spaghetti lunch in the annex, with 15 local businesses providing the food.

This year, however, the altar was much smaller, so the prep time was greatly diminished. But the tradition of feeding students remained, with fourth graders and their families being served.

Before the meal, the fourth-graders and pre-K students gathered to watch Father Cayet Mangiaracina OP bless the altar before the younger students returned to class.

“This is not just me,” she said, explaining that she did not want parents of fourth-grade students to serve so they would be able to spend time with their children.

A family tradition continued, even with a twist.