Also called St. Joseph home seller, burying St. Joseph upside down, St. Joseph real estate kit
A popular custom in which home sellers bury a small statue of Saint Joseph in the yard and pray for a quick sale, then dig it up and give it a place of honor in the new home.
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Take care: Check for buried cables or pipes before digging near a sign post. Many Catholics consider burying the statue upside down disrespectful, so if you are unsure, choose upright or simply pray.
One widely told story says Teresa of Avila, who was devoted to Saint Joseph, had her nuns bury medals of him while praying for land for new convents. The story is popular but cannot be traced to her own writings, so treat it as legend.
André Bessette, a Holy Cross brother, is said to have planted medals of Saint Joseph on the slope of Mount Royal while praying for the land on which Saint Joseph's Oratory was later built. Many people point to him as the real model for the custom.
Diocesan spokesmen have called the burial a superstition rather than a church devotion, while saying that asking Saint Joseph's help in prayer is entirely fine. Some families keep the statue on a shelf indoors and pray a novena instead.
Saint Joseph, husband of Mary, is honored as patron of the universal Church, of families, workers and carpenters, and of a happy death. His trade and his role as the protector of the Holy Family's home made him a natural patron for anyone looking for a house. His main feast falls on March 19, and Wednesday is the weekday Catholic custom dedicates to him.
Nobody has documented exactly where the burial custom began. Stories point to Teresa of Avila, to Brother André Bessette in Montreal, or to German carpenters, but none is proven. What is clear is that by the late 1980s and 1990s American newspapers were reporting real-estate agents handing out statues, and several companies began selling home-seller kits with instructions. The custom's success is entirely anecdotal.
A loaf and a little salt carried into a new home or offered at its door, so the household will never go hungry and life there will keep its savour.
A pair of rituals for leaving one home and entering the next: a thank-you sweep for the house you are selling, and a first-entry blessing with bread, salt, rice and a new broom for the new one. It draws on moving customs from Eastern Europe, China, Japan and Appalachia.
A used iron horseshoe nailed above a doorway to bring luck into the house and keep the Devil, witches and fairies out.
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