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Krampus’s Kousins · real folklore
La Befana, Italy's Christmas witch
La Befana is Italy's Epiphany gift-bringer: a kindly but very ugly old woman on a broomstick who comes down the chimney on the night of January 5 and fills children's stockings with sweets, or coal for the naughty. Her name comes from Epifania, Epiphany, and being a good housekeeper she is said to sweep the floor before she flies on.
Who she is
The Treccani dictionary gives Befana as the popular name for Epiphany, from the Latin epiphania, and as the name of the figure herself: “a very ugly but kindly old woman” who leaves sweets and gifts in the shoes or stockings of good children and pieces of coal for the naughty. In 1912 the folklorist Clement Miles called her “the Santa Klaus of the South”. Today the coal is usually black sugar candy, so nobody really goes without.
The legend of the Magi
The story most Italians tell: on their way to the newborn Jesus, the Three Kings stopped at Befana's little house and asked her to come along. She was too busy with her housework, said no, and regretted it at once. She has been searching for the Child ever since, leaving a gift for every child she passes. Her broom, a writer in Focus notes, stands for cleaning out the old year.
La Befana today
Miles recorded that in Florence her image was set in windows and carried in noisy street processions with trumpets. The biggest party now is in Urbania, in the Marche, which holds the Festa Nazionale della Befana around January 4 to 6: the Befana's House sits under the town hall, and she comes down from the bell tower to hand out sweets. Of all of Krampus's Kousins she is the one we would most like to have over, if only to get the floor done.
Hear it on Krampus Kristmas
The song
La Befana
Fast Italian mandolin tarantella, mandolins, accordion
Krampus’s Kousins, on the air
La Befana
Italy's Christmas witch flies in on the eve of Epiphany: sweets for the good, coal for the rest, and she sweeps your floor before she goes.
More of Krampus’s Kousins
Questions
Who is La Befana?
Italy's Epiphany gift-bringer: a kindly but very ugly old woman on a broom who fills children's stockings on the night of January 5. Her name comes from Epifania, Epiphany.
When does La Befana come?
On the night of January 5, the eve of Epiphany (January 6).
Why does La Befana bring coal?
Coal is the traditional warning for naughty children. Today it is usually black sugar candy.
Is La Befana a witch?
She looks like one, with a broom and a shawl, but she is good-hearted. In the legend she turned the Magi away, regretted it, and now leaves gifts for every child while she searches for the infant Jesus.
Sources
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