January 5: La Befana Comes Tonight
While my mother’s parents were from Sicily, it was not until several years ago I learned of La Befana, Italy’s oldest and most celebrated legend – about a witch. What's not to love about that?!
In Italian folklore, she is an old woman with warts on her crooked nose, wearing a skirt and a black shawl, who flies around on her broom, delivering candy to well-behaved children. In Russia she is known as Baboushka.
Children await Babbo Natale on Christmas Eve, but the red-suited man is new compared to the story of the old woman who was too busy cleaning to join the Wise Men on their journey. According to the legend, they stopped by her cottage to ask directions and invited her to come along, but she refused.
Later that night she saw a great light in the sky. Regretting her decision, she sets out to bring the Christ Child gifts. She never finds him and instead leaves her gifts for children she encountered along the way. Since the 13th century, children have left their shoes out or hung up their socks Epiphany Eve (tonight!) for the Befana to fill with sweets and gifts. Bad children were given lumps of coal.
Often she is shown covered in soot because, like Santa Claus, she delivers presents by sliding down the chimney. Her name means “gift-bringer” and many believe she also sweeps the floor before she leaves, sweeping away the old to make way for the new.
La Befana is a Christian legend that began in Northern Italy and became a big part of the Italian celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany, which commemorates the 12th day of Christmas when the Wise Men arrive in Bethlehem and deliver their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
Her arrival is celebrated with traditional Italian foods such as panettone, fried doughnuts with dried fruit, and fritters with raisins. When children leave a snack for the witch, it’s something soft because she has few teeth.
While La Bafana is viewed most commonly as a village crone, she has also been called a sprite or fairy. Instead of a broomstick, sometimes she is said to ride a goat or a donkey. Rarely does she wear a pointed hat; a headscarf is more traditional.
According to an article written by Martha Bakerhian for TripSavy, “This folktale may actually date back to the Roman pagan festival of Saturnalia, a one- or two-week festival starting just before the winter solstice. At the end of Saturnalia, Romans would go to the Temple of Juno on the Capitoline Hill to have their fortunes read by an old crone. This story evolved into the tale of La Befana.”
Tonight before sleep I will put a pair of shoes, a small cup of cappuccino, and two small biscotti on the bumper of my bus in the hopes the dogs who run around long before I get up won't notice it. Maybe a bit of Strega, too.
For a brief moment earlier this year, I thought about leaving little gifts at all the buses here. But it's just as well I didn't plan for it because I can barely walk right now. That's because Bob took me to a junk yard to find a better seat for Karmalita. He did find one. Only one! We spent almost three hours checking out vehicles covering about four football fields. I ache all over.