The whole ritual starts at the end of Mass with three people dressed up as unknown peasants going in procession to the house where the saint's altar has been prepared with loaves sculpted into flowers, crowns, other various symbols and, above all, where there are tables decked out for a feast and where dishes of food come from every house in San Vito.

First, when the three unknown peasants, passing themselves off as three poor pilgrims that wanted to rest, knocked twice at the door, the door was closed, and closed it remained. And it is only when the peasants declare their identity, when they say they are Jesus, Joseph and Mary, only then does the owner of the house throw open the doors shouting: Everyone come into my house! This could be interpreted as the common immagination wanting to point out its enthusiastic willingness to receive the Holy Family, or it could mean somthing else entirely.

It is at this point that the feast begins, with its own rules and customs. The Baby Jesus sits at the table between his august parents and benedicts every cry of praise from the people, meanwhile the three attendants serve them, and remain attentive to their orders. Because if a "saint" signals his attendant that he wants to make you a gift of a morsel of fresh bean frittata, you can't not accept, because that food is sacred, and it's not polite to be rude to the saints.

In the end, all that bountiful good food ends up more in the the stomachs of the "devoted" that are present, than in the stomachs of the incognito peasants, who "should" be used to repentence and can always console themselves with the cheering.