An old lady dressed only in rags, with a big nose and shabby shoes. This is how we imagine her, the Befana, with her broom and her bag full of sweets. In reality, the friendly old lady is today the result of a mix of traditions, customs and popular customs, ancient rites and pagan ceremonies that have accumulated since the dawn of time. But why is January 6th coming? And what exactly is Epiphany?
That of the “Befana” is a tradition that is rooted in many peoples and in the most varied cultures of the past. Upon its arrival, on the night between 5 and 6 January, it is substantially linked to the visit of the Three Kings to the cave of Baby Jesus, but it remains an exclusively popular celebration.
The origins of the Befana and Christian stories
According to Christian tradition, the day ofEpiphany (from Greek ἐπιφάνεια, epiphaneia“manifestation, apparition”) is the one in which the Three Wise Men come to pay homage to the newborn Jesus by giving him gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. According to the liturgical calendar, in fact, 12 days after Holy Christmas a new feast of obligation gathers the faithful precisely for the “Epiphany of the Lorde”. An anniversary that according to some dates back to the 2nd century AD.
Tradition has it that on this same occasion there is also the Befana to bring gifts to good children. But what do the Magi have in common with the old lady?
In the gospels it is said that some wise men (“Magi” is a term of Persian origin) brought gifts to Baby Jesus. “Some Magi came from the east to Jerusalem“, we read, and in the Gospel of Matthew it is said that Herod, frightened by the coming of the “King of the Jews”, urged the Magi to go to Bethlehem to find out where the child was. Herod pretended to want to know the place of Jesus’ birth so he could go and worship him himself.
“Calling the Magi secretly, he asked them to tell him exactly the time in which the star had appeared and sent them to Bethlehem saying: Go and find out carefully about the child and, when you have found him, let me know, so that I too can come and adore him” (Gospel according to Matthew).
Following the comet star, the Magi found Jesus and his mother Mary “in the house” and began to adore him, offering him gold, to pay homage to the kingship of the Child, incense to remember his divinity, and myrrh, for the sacrifice and future death of the man Jesus (myrrh is a perfumed ointment used in ancient times for the mummification and preservation of the deceased).
“Having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
The legends linked to the Befana and history
The tradition linked to the Befana, on the other hand, is of decidedly pagan origins, whose story is usually linked to the fantastic tale in which female figures ready to propitiate the harvest would fly over the newly sown fields in the night.
It was the ancient Romans who inherited some pagan propitiatory rites linked to seasonal cycles and associating them with the Roman calendar. On the twelfth night after the winter solstice they celebrated the death and rebirth of nature through Mother Nature and it was believed that precisely on those twelve nights female figures flew over the cultivated fields, in order to ingratiate themselves with the fertility of future crops.
Some identified the female figure with Diana, lunar goddess of game and vegetation, others with minor deities such as “Satia” (goddess of satiety), or “Abundia” (goddess of abundance).
Other beliefs link the Befana to an ancient Roman festival, which took place in winter in honor of Janus and Strenia (from which the term “strenna” also derives) and during which gifts were exchanged. Still others trace the Befana back to some imported figures of Germanic mythology, such as Holda and Berchta, always as a female personification of winter nature.
From the 4th century AD the Church of Rome began to condemn pagan rites and beliefs, but many personifications resisted until the late Middle Ages until they gradually accepted again the current figure of an affectionate old lady, and not a witch, represented on a flying broom.
Then, in the period of the theologian Epiphanius of Salamis, the anniversary of the Epiphany was proposed as the date of the twelfth night after Christmas, thus recovering the ancient pagan numerical symbolism.
The fascist Befana
In 1928, the fascist regime introduced the fascist Befana holiday (later also known as Befana del duce or Christmas of the duce): the opportunity to distribute gifts to children of the poorer classes.
The aim was obviously to give visibility to the women’s groups and to the national after-work organisation, so much so that the creator Augusto Turati ordered the provincial federations of the National Fascist Party (PNF) to solicit donations from traders, industrialists and farmers on the occasion of the festival, the management of which was entrusted to the fascist women’s and youth organisations.
After Turati’s fall from grace, the “Fascist Befana” became the “Befana del Duce”, an anniversary always aimed at “embellishing” the figure of Benito Mussolini and which continued even during the Second World War, resuming the name “Fascist Befana” after the establishment of the Italian Social Republic.
Even today, the Befana, recalling the religious tradition of Saint Lucia, who gave gifts to children before her, as Saint Nicholas did before Santa Claus, mostly gives sweets and sweets.
How the Befana is dressed
No witch’s hat as is often mistakenly represented, but a knotted shawl of heavy fabric (the so-called pezzola) or a wool scarf.
Its appearance, with a wrinkled face and few teeth, a prominent nose and a curved back, is due to the symbolic representation of the old year, which is being prepared to burn, as happened in some European countries, where the tradition of burning puppets dressed in worn clothes was followed at the beginning of the year. In many parts of Italy, the custom of burning or sawing a puppet in the shape of an old woman was part of the rites at the end of Lent.
To protect herself from the cold, the Befana wears long, patched skirts and an apron. Finally, use heavy socks and comfortable shoes, but not Gascon boots. On her sometimes hunched shoulders she always has a heavy and colorful wool shawl.
According to tradition, the Befana delivers sweets to good children and coal (an ancient ritual symbol of bonfires) to naughty children.
What will you have in your stocking?
