LA BEFANA – Italian Christmas
folklore
By Cynthia Ripley Miller
Although
I was born in America, my father and my maternal grandparents came from Italy
to America and my paternal grandparents remained in Italy. So, I grew up with
the idea of Santa Claus at Christmas time, but I also knew the Italian story of
the old woman ‘La Befana’ from my parents.
La
Befana comes from the word ‘epifana’ meaning epiphany. The Epiphany is the holy
and twelfth day after Christmas on January 6, celebrating the arrival of the
Three Kings or Magi (wise men) in Bethlehem with gifts for the baby Jesus who
they believed was the ‘king of the Jews’.
Wise
Men On A Journey
The
story is told that the Magi came to the house of La Befana while on their
journey to Bethlehem. Like a good Italian housewife, she gave them refreshment
and asked them about their travels. They shared with her that they were
following a star that would lead them to a newborn king, a baby prophesied as a
savior to the world, and that they wanted to bring him gifts and pay him
homage. They asked La Befana to join them on their journey, but she refused
saying she was too busy keeping her home.This is why she is often depicted with
a broom. She was considered a ‘casalinga’ housewife and not a witch as some
stories make her out to be.
After
the Magi left, La Befana felt remorse and stopped her sweeping. She gathered up
some sweets as a gift and chased after the Magi to join them, but could not
find them. Sorry for her choice, she continued to search for the baby Jesus, leaving
sweets for all the children along the way, some say by their doors, others in
their shoes or hanging stockings.
The
legend adds that on every January 5th, the eve of the Epiphany, La
Befana, still searching, brings sweets and toys to all the children who have
been good during the year. In addition, a more modern element to the legend
adds that if children have not been good, she will only leave them a lump of
coal. My father is a native born Italian and says that he grew up with the
belief that he would either get sweets (figs, dates, candy etc.) or a lump of
coal in his shoes from La Befana. He claims he only received treats and never
any coal. Hmm. I guess I believe him.
A
Housewife More Than A Witch
La
Befana ideally should be remembered as an old woman housewife who wore a
kerchief and carried a broom—a symbol of her curse for choosing her household
duties over honoring the baby Jesus—more than a witch, flying around on a broom.
Either way, it’s a Christmas tradition wrapped in the spirit of the season that
captures the imagination of children and adults alike. A song that Italian
children chant on the eve of the Epiphany while waiting for La Befana:
La Befana vien di note The Befana comes at
night
con tutte le scarpe rotte with
broken shoes
col cappello alla romana with a Roman hat
viva viva La Befana live, live, La Befana
***
On the Edge of Sunrise
Book One of the Long-Hair Saga
When
love commands, destiny must obey. The
year is AD 450. The Roman Empire wanes as the
Medieval Age awakens. Attila the Hun and
his horde conquer their way across Europe into Gaul. Caught between Rome’s
tottering empire and Attila’s threat are the Frankish tribes and their
‘Long-Hair’ chiefs, northern pagans in a Roman Christian world, and a people
history will call the Merovingians.
A young widow, Arria longs for a
purpose and a challenge. She is as well
versed in politics and diplomacy as any man … but with special skills of her own.
Emperor Valentinian, determined to gain allies to help stop the Huns, sends a
remarkable envoy, a woman, to the Assembly of Warriors in Gaul. Arria will persuade the Franks to stand with
Rome against Attila.
When barbarian
raiders abduct Arria, the Frank blue-eyed warrior, Garic, rescues her. Alarmed by her instant and passionate attraction,
Arria is torn between duty and desire. Her arranged betrothal
to the ambitious tribune, Drusus, her secret enlistment by Valentinian as a
courier to Attila the Hun, and a mysterious riddle—threaten their love and
propel them into adventure,
intrigue, and Attila’s camp. Rebels in a
falling empire, Arria and Garic must find the strength to defy tradition and
possess the love prophesied as their destiny.
The Quest
for the Crown of Thorns
Book Two of the Long-Hair Saga
AD 454.
Three years after the Roman victory over Attila the Hun at Catalaunum, Arria
Felix and Garic the Frank are married and enjoying life on Garic’s farm in
northern Gaul (France). Their happy life is interrupted when a cryptic message
arrives from Arria’s father, the esteemed Senator Felix, calling them to
Rome. At Arria’s insistence, but
against Garic’s better judgment, they leave at once.
On their
arrival at Villa Solis, they are confronted with a brutal murder and a
dangerous mission. The fate of a profound and sacred object—Christ’s Crown of
Thorns—rests in their hands. They must carry the holy relic to the safety of
Constantinople, away from a corrupt emperor and old enemies determined to steal
it for their own gain. But a greater force arises against them—a secret cult
who will commit any atrocity to capture the Crown. All the while, the gruesome murder
and the conspiracy behind it haunt Arria’s thoughts.
Arria and
Garic’s marital bonds are tested but forged as they partner together to fulfill
one of history’s most challenging missions, The Quest for the Crown of
Thorns.
Cynthia
Ripley Miller
Cynthia
Ripley Miller’s short fiction has appeared in anthologies and ezines. A Ring of
Honor-Circle of Books Award winner and Chanticleer International Chatelaine
Award finalist for her novel, On the Edge
of Sunrise, she has reviewed for UNRV
Roman History, and blogs at Historical
Happenings and Oddities: A Distant Focus and on her website, click HERE!
On the Edge of Sunrise and The Quest for the Crown of Thorns are
the first two novels in her Long-Hair Saga series set in Late Ancient Rome and
France.
My Italian friend was once left coal in her shoe at Christmas by her prankster brother. She cried for ages!
ReplyDeleteJackie, sorry so late to respond. But yes, coal is not a good thing to get from La Befana! My dad as a child worried about it. They believed. Lol
ReplyDelete