On 6th January the Feast of Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Three Magi ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν (apò anatolòn = from the rising of the Sun, i.e. from the east, but saying it in Greek is so much geekier) to baby Jesus, brought Christmas holidays to a close: here in Italy it’s religiously celebrated by attending mass (or by watching the Pope celebrating mass on live TV), and secularly by eating tons of candies and chocolates brought (to children, mainly, but adults won’t refuse a sockful of sweets, either) during the night between 5th and 6th January by la Befana.
Who is she, and why did she bring a cartload of chocolate to my mother and nothing to me?!?
That’s inconceivable.
Anyway, this Befana lady is a traditional character in Italian folklore: she’s allegedly a witch, dressed in rags, flying around riding a broomstick as witches do, and only appears the night before the feast of Epiphany, bringing sweets and little toys to kids that have been good, and pieces of coal to brats. The broom also comes in handy to hit children if they happen to be awake late at night waiting for her, as she doesn’t want to be seen…
There are a few theories going around about la Befana:
she’s Santa Claus’ wife;
she’s unrelated to Santa (perhaps they’re divorced?);
she was the host of an AirBnB the three wise men stopped at on their way to baby Jesus’ manger;
she was invited to baby Jesus’ shower party but refused to go, then changed her mind but couldn’t find her invitation and couldn’t remember the exact address for the party, so to this day she’s still flying around on a broomstick in search of baby Jesus, and in the meantime she brings cavities and diabetes to all the other children of the world;
other fancy nonsense of choice.
When I was little my sister and I used to build a miniature nativity scene (presepe, in Italian), and moved the little statues of the three wise men closer to baby Jesus’ manger as 6th January approached — and then of course waited for the day to arrive to stuff our faces with chocolate etc., knowing the following day we would’ve gone back to school, and to a no-junk-food eating regime.
La Befana, as a festivity, has been celebrated by poets and musicians alike — Giuseppe Gioachino Belli wrote a few sonnets about the feast in romanesco (Rome’s dialect), and here’s M° Vasily Petrenko conducting Ottorino Respighi‘s Feste Romane at the 2009 BBC Proms:
But that’s not the only piece of music that Respighi dedicated to the last day of Christmas holidays, as in 1927, inspired by a painting by Sandro Botticelli, he also composed L’adorazione dei Magi:
And my beloved Gianni Rodari also wrote one of his children rhymes about la Befana:
Mi hanno detto, cara Befana,
che tu riempi la calza di lana,
che tutti i bimbi, se stanno buoni,
da te ricevono ricchi doni.
Io buono sono sempre stato
ma un dono mai me l’hai portato.
Anche quest’anno nel calendario
tu passi proprio in perfetto orario,
ma ho paura, poveretto,
che tu viaggi in treno diretto:
un treno che salta tante stazioni
dove ci sono bimbi buoni.
Io questa lettera ti ho mandato
per farti prendere l’accelerato!
O cara Befana, prendi un trenino
che fermi a casa d’ogni bambino,
che fermi alle case dei poveretti
con tanti doni e tanti confetti.
Anyway, despite the rain annoying everyone, in the late morning of her feast day la Befana made her yearly appearance in piazza Navona, home of the traditional mercatino natalizio:
To celebrate the Epiphany, I got a galette des rois from Le levain, just to confuse things — what is this? France, perchance? — and had a lovely lunch with my Mum.
An Italian saying goes “l’Epifania tutte le feste porta via” (i.e. the Epiphany marks an end to all festivities), but that’s not true in our family, because… it’s my mother’s birthday today!
So, unlike everyone else, we’ve kept on stuffing our face with chocolate and other sweets (including the most delicious specialty panettone!) for the day…
…after all it’s a Sunday, and neither of us has to go back to school tomorrow.
The no-junk-food eating regime will resume soon… maybe.