There Hag he comes at night with his shoes all broken…
Every year, on the night between January 5th and 6th, in many Italian homes children hang up their stocking, hoping to find it full of sweets when they wake up. To some, however, the Befana brings coal! But who is this figure, and why does he arrive at the January 6?
The “little old lady with the broom” is the result of the encounter between very ancient rites linked to winter and nature, and the Christian festival of the Epiphany, which celebrates the arrival of the Three Kings. It is no coincidence that in many countries, in the first days of January, there are similar traditions: the names and characters change, but the idea is often the same — saying goodbye to the holidays, closing a cycle and wishing luck for the new year.
In this article we will therefore discover who the Befana is and what it represents, why it is celebrated on January 6th and in which other countries in the world there are “sister” traditions to ours.
Who is the Befana and why is it celebrated on January 6th
The name Hag derives from a popular deformation of the term “Epiphany”, in turn from Greek epiphaneiawhich means “manifestation” or “appearance”.
His origins are unclear, but his figure was already known in the 14th century, as demonstrated by medieval documents and texts which testify to the existence of popular festivals linked to the Epiphany.
In the days between the end of December and the beginning of January, in Italy there were celebrations related to fertility of the fields et al return of light after the winter solstice. The Befana, in this sense, preserves the flavor of a tradition that combines superstition, religion and peasant culture. And this is precisely how she became a character full of meanings typical of our country’s folklore. His figure, however, is also intertwined with a legend of Christianity according to which an elderly woman refused to accompany the Magi to Bethlehem. Regretful of her gesture, the old lady in the story spent her life looking for Jesus and, not finding him, she distributed the gifts to other children she met on her way.
How the Befana is portrayed and what it symbolizes
In popular tradition she is portrayed as an elderly woman who flies on a broomstick wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters homes through chimneys to bring gifts to children. His elderly appearance is not accidental: old age recalls the idea of the year ending, of winter reaching its deepest point and of the need to close a cycle before starting again.
In many interpretations, however, the Befana is above all a figure of purification and renewal: arrives when the Christmas holidays are about to end and takes away (“Epiphany takes away all the holidays”) what remains of the holiday period.
There broomthe iconic element that accompanies it, symbolically recalls this very gesture: sweep away the old to make room for the new. For this reason, in some traditions the Befana is also seen as an ambivalent character: she can be generous and affectionate with those who have behaved well, but also severe with those who have not.
