La Befana brings holiday treats 12 days after Christmas

THE holiday season isn’t over in Italy yet. Sure, Santa Claus (or Babbo Natale, as he’s called in Italian) is relaxing at the North Pole. But Italian children are expecting another special visitor: La Befana, a kind woman who flies by broomstick, wiggles through chimneys and stuffs stockings with candy.

She drops off goodies the night of Jan 5, so kids wake up to sweet surprises on Jan 6.

That date marks the Christian holiday of Epiphany, when three kings brought presents to baby Jesus. According to the Befana legend, the kings passed her house on their way to Bethlehem and invited her to join them.

She was too busy sweeping, and they left without her. She could never catch up, so now she soars through the night sky on that broomstick, dropping off treats for nice kids – and coal for naughty ones.

“She’s an old lady on an educational mission. You grow up knowing you have to behave,” said Francesco Gulini, president of the organization that runs Italy’s National Festival of La Befana, a multiday party that is 25 years old this year.

Each January, the town of Urbania welcomes visitors wanting to see its most famous resident and her gigantic stocking that’s hung at city hall.

She lives in Urbania yearround, says Gulini, who notes, “You can visit her house – it has a kitchen, a living room, a place where she creates stockings and a courtyard where she hangs out in the summer.”

La Befana and her fans put in appearances across Italy. In Florence, she tosses candy to kids in Piazza Della Signoria before a parade winds through the city center.

Venice hosts a boat race with competitors dressed as La Befana. There’s the beloved Befana market in Rome’s Piazza Navona, where vendors sell candy and witch dolls. And in some northern cities, it’s traditional to build a Befana puppet and burn it.

“It symbolizes a break between the old year and the new year,” Gulini says.

American folklorist Steve Siporin has experienced another custom in a remote part of Italy’s Tuscany region. Squads of performers there go house to house dressed as Befana, her husband, Befano, and their young daughter.

“Usually they have canes and humpbacks, but they dance lively,” he says.

Everyone crowds into the kitchen for songs and skits, alongside a buffet of local specialties.

After they eat and drink, they move on to the next stop until late into the night.

The roots of these celebrations may date back to ancient Roman times, says Siporin, who researched the history for his forthcoming book, “The Befana Is Returning: The Story of a Tuscan Festival.”

He has encountered many tales about La Befana and her origins, including one in which she succeeds in finding Jesus, who tells her to distribute all of his gifts to the children of the world.

Most people in the United States have probably never heard of La Befana – unless they’ve read the 1980 book about her by Tomie dePaola (author of the Strega Nona series).

But she will get more attention this week with the world premiere of the opera “Befana: A Christmas Fable” in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Composer Kirke Mechem wove together several sources to create his version of her story: La Befana’s child and husband have died, so she cleans her house constantly, hoping that they will return one day.

She insists on cleaning rather than joining the journey to Bethlehem. When she realizes she’s missed her chance, she cries and her tears magically lift her broom into the air, allowing her to start her candy delivery tradition.

Mechem says the moral is an important one at this time of year.

“All of the things you’re busy with aren’t necessarily the important things,” he says.

A children’s chorus, which lovingly mocks La Befana’s strange habits, and the circus atmosphere when the kings come to town makes it an appealing show for families, says director Cheryl Anderson, who thinks the opera could soon be performed widely during the holidays.

Any American children who hope La Befana will visit them just need to remember to leave her a snack before bed on Wednesday.

Gulini says she’s not picky, but she appreciates cookies and a glass of wine. — The Washington Post

— The Washington Post photo courtesy of Pro Loco Casteldurante Children in Italy expect treats from La Befana on the morning of Jan 6. As the legend goes, the three kings asked an old woman to come with them to bring gifts to baby Jesus. She said she was too busy. She changed her mind, but it was too late to catch up. To make up for the bad decision, she flies on her broomstick bringing treats to children each year on Three hings’ aay, or bpiphany.

People dress as La Befana for the National Befana Festival in Urbania, Italy.