The Fogheraccia di San Giuseppe, also known as the Focarina, is an annual public bonfire lit on the evening of 18 March, the vigil of Saint Joseph's Day, in the historical region of Romagna, northern Italy, and San Marino.
Participants around a bonfire at a Lòm a Merz, February 2015
A bonfire on Saint Joseph's Day in 2007 in Tursi, Basilicata
Saint Joseph's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Joseph or the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, is in Western Christianity the principal feast day of Saint Joseph, husband of the Virgin Mary and legal father of Jesus Christ, celebrated on 19 March. It has the rank of a solemnity in the Catholic Church. It is a feast or commemoration in the provinces of the Anglican Communion, and a feast or festival in the Lutheran Church. Saint Joseph's Day is the Patronal Feast day for Poland as well as for Canada, persons named Joseph, Josephine, etc., for religious institutes, schools and parishes bearing his name, and for carpenters. It is also Father's Day in some Catholic countries, mainly Spain, Portugal, and Italy. It is not a holy day of obligation for Catholics in the United States.
Saint Joseph with the Infant Jesus by Guido Reni, c 1635
Traditional Saint Joseph's Altar in New Orleans
