La Befana

Well it is getting that time of year, and Dutchboy has been doing such a nice job of sharing things from his homeland and culture and such, I thought I would offer up a bit of info on a tradition perhaps many are not famillar with, of course we all know of Santa Clause, though as Dutchboy has demostrated thier are surely many different myths and tales associating around the figure, but I want to talk about a all together different figure whom many proably have not heard of that serves much the same purpose as Jolly old St. Nick.

I am speaking of La Befana, which translate to The White Witch, so who is La Befana? She is a figure from Itallian culture, and she very much does embody the rather common and typical imagery of a witch, she is an old woman, who much like Santa Clause is rather round in figure, and she is belived to ride either upon a flying broom, or some stories say a donkey, and she carries with her a large sack of gifts with which to leave behind to the childern of the world, as well she is said to leave both food and presents within the stokcings of childern.

Some people have come to belive that La Befana is Santa Clause's wife and she helps him out, and it is from her that the idea of naughty childern being left a lump of coal has come. It is always said that often before leaving a house she will use her broom to sweep the floor. Much like leaving milk and cookies, for La Befana, childern would leave a small glass of wine, as well as a few morsals of food behind and usually the food is something that is local to the particular area.

1:45 PM - 12/11/2006 - post comment

G'DAY SILVERWIND.

What a lovely story, My husband is Hungarian by birth and he tells me that if you were naughty you were left a stick to be smacked with and if you were good you may get an orange or a lolly (candy) but not much else because they were all so poor.
I enjoyed the story of Befana and what a lovely folk tale of a magical being who is good and leaves the children gifts.Thank you. Lots of love and hugs from Dawnie.

DAWNIE - 4:12 AM - 12/12/2006

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Yep. I'm familiar with La Bafana (that's the spelling I found in my It. Dictionary). I love it. Means there is still a local flavor to this sort of things, eh. I'm not against Santa Clause, but he does become too widespread. On the 9th he's even had his first official arrival in my country. Even that isn't such a big deal, as long as he arrives with a flying sled and flying reindeer!!! (Which is impossible for now)

Dutchboy - 6:49 AM - 12/15/2006

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