In the matter of Christmas traditions, Italy has some traits in common with many other countries in the Western world.
However, there is one mythical character who has a place of excellence in Italian Christmas legends, especially in Rome, and who is instead hard to find in other countries of Europe.
The Befana or La Befana, who enlivens the holiday of Epiphany at the beginning of the New Year, is also known as Italy’s Christmas Witch.
She is far from just being the female counterpart of Santa Claus, although today these figures coexist in the collective imagination of Italians
The history of this female figure is fascinating and has its origins in ancient pre-Christian pagan cults.
In this article, you will find out who La Befana is and how epiphany is celebrated in Italy and particularly in Rome, the city where I was born and raised.
You will also discover many other interesting facts about Christmas and “la Befana” traditions in Italy.
WHO IS LA BEFANA TODAY?
In the first days of January, parents and grandparents in Rome sing this little song to their children:
La Befana vien di notte Con le scarpe tutte rotte Con le toppe alla sottana Viva viva la Befana which translates: La Befana comes at night With her shoes all broken With patches on her skirt Long live the Befana
I too have spent many holidays to the tune of this rhyme. There are different versions of this song in every region of Italy. I have also heard the phrase.
“Epiphany all the holidays take away.”
In fact, Epiphany, the holiday connected with the character of “La Befana,” closes the cycle of Christmas festivities in Italy.
The Befana is a simultaneously good and stern old woman who visits homes where children live on the night between January 5 and 6.
To get from one house to another, she flies on a broom, which tradition has turned around with twigs on the front (thus in contrast to the way medieval “witches” carry it).
This traveling old lady has a big nose and a protruding chin; she is more generous than beautiful. Her clothes are threadbare and her shoes old; on her head, she wears a rag to shelter her gray hair from the cold.
HOW IS LA BEFANA CELEBRATED IN ITALY? | LA BEFANA TRADITIONS
While the children are sleeping, La Befana stuffs their socks with sweets and small toys, if the children during the year have been good, while she puts bits of coal or ashes in them if they have been too fussy.
Children prepare to receive the Befana by leaving her a glass with a latte in the kitchen, along with the socks to be filled.
Usually, the children on the morning of January 6 find their socks filled with sweets and, at the bottom of the sock, lumps of black sugar representing coal, because they have certainly been a bit naughty as well.
The Befana spends the whole year working hard as an artisan to reward children and collecting ashes and coal to scold them.
In the city where I was born and raised, Rome, children gather in Piazza Navona to celebrate this Italian Christmas witch on the morning of January 6. In Piazza Navona, children will find one of Rome’s oldest Christmas markets, with plenty of booths displaying sweets and crafts and street performers.
The arrival of the Befana coincides with the arrival of the Three Wise Men in Bethlehem. The Magi brought gifts to the baby Jesus.
In Rome, the custom of exchanging gifts on Christmas Day is relatively recent. Until the 1950s, it was traditional to exchange gifts on January 6.
On that date, many Romans would go to the Ara Coeli Church in the historic center to pay homage to a statue of the baby boy carved from wood from Jetsemani in the 15th century, the “Bambinello“, and ask him for miracles.
To discover the deeper meanings of the holiday of Epiphany and the Befana, one must know its origins.
READ ALSO: 40 Dishes That the Italians eat at Christmas
THE BEFANA: ORIGINS IN THE ANCIENT PAGAN CULTS OF EUROPE
The name Befana is a dialect transformation from the Latin for epiphany, which in turn was derived from the Greek word.
It denoted festivals of the “manifestation of divinity,” which in ancient pre-Christian and pre-Roman Europe were celebrated on the first days of January or about 12 days after the winter solstice, which happened in late December.
In ancient cultures related to agricultural cycles, during this intervening period between the old and new years, propitiatory rites were performed to “Mother Earth” to ensure the fertility of the soil. The figure connected to the mother deity was a wise, mature, and generous woman.
The ancient Romans, corresponding with the winter solstice and Christian Christmas celebrated Sol Invictus and the god Mithras. A few days after these holidays and corresponding with today’s epiphany, they celebrated rites for the goddesses Strenia and Abundia goddess of fertility, with the custom of exchanging clay figurines as gifts.
During the Middle Ages, it was believed that the Goddess Diana, linked to the moon, flew over the fields to make them fertile.
Among Germanic-speaking peoples, there was the Goddess Berchta, who visited houses on January 6 to check their state of cleanliness.
With the spread of the Christian religion, in order to get the people to renounce pagan rites, these female deities were identified with ugly old women and later with witches.
But the Italian people continued to worship their Italian Christmas witch.
The Befana’s broom is symbolic of the legacy of this “cleansing” function, sweeping away the old and making room for the new, for purification and rebirth.
Even today during the holiday season in Italy it is customary to hang small brooms on doors and in some regions of Italy, to give small brooms as gifts.
AND WHAT HAPPENS IN ITALY AFTER EPIPHANY?
Epiphany closes the circle of Christmas festivities in Italy, which had begun more than a month earlier with this schedule:
First weeks of November: opening of Christmas markets throughout Italy December 8: Families begin decorating homes and merchants set up Christmas lights in the streets and piazzas. December 24: Christmas Eve dinner Dec. 25: Christmas lunch Dec. 26: Lunch to celebrate Santo Stefano (Boxing Day) December 31: New Year's Eve Dinner January 1: New Year's Eve celebration January 6: Epiphany
Starting Jan. 7, most Italians return to work or school.
READ ALSO: Where to Spend New Year's Eve in Italy
If you have any comments about who is La Befana, La Befana traditions, and curiosities about Italy’s Christmas witch, please write them below.
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