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"La Befana" (Epiphany) Holiday January 6
La Befana: Kindly old witch who brings children toys on the Feast of the
Epiphany, January 6. According to the legend of la Befana, the Three Wise
Men stopped at her hut to ask directions on their way to Bethlehem and to
invite her to join them. She refused, and later a shepherd asked her to join
him in paying respect to the Christ Child. Again she refused, and when night
fell she saw a great light in the skies. La Befana thought perhaps she
should have gone with the Three Wise Men, so she gathered some toys that had
belonged to her own child, who had died, and ran to find the kings and the
shepherd. But la Befana could not find them or the stable. Now, each year
she looks for the Christ Child. Since she can not find him, she leaves gifts
for the children of Italy and pieces of coal (nowadays carbone dolce, a rock
candy that looks remarkably like coal) for the bad ones. La Befana The Story
of the Befana By Floria Parmiani The legend of the Befana has had an
important role in the imagination of all children of the world. Those who
wish to relive the magic of the first wonders of infancy and understand the
meaning and origins of this extraordinary figure, should be prepared to
undertake a long voyage that will carry them back in time, to the origins of
human's history. We'll discover what makes this personage so mysterious and
arcane, because this little old lady so dear to children has continued to
fascinate them for centuries, and they still await her arrival on the night
of her holiday. It's possible to demonstrate historically through
archeological and anthropological statistics how archaic traces of
civilization were conserved in the traditions of the Mediterranean world and
survive through the form of images and symbols regarding mythic figures,
such as that of the Befana. Some images connected to the figure of the
Befana are revealed in an archaic agricultural context when the homes became
stable and the cult of domestic folklore was established. In Neolithic
culture, the houses of villages in Anatolia (Catal Huyuk) and other places
had neither windows nor doors; the only entrance was through the wide,
horizontal roof. The house was entered by a ladder which was then withdrawn
in a defensive action. The Befana arrived in the homes through the chimney,
an act that in the myths throughout the world is attributed to mythic
figures as, for example, the spirits of the Montagnais Indians in North
America, and above all the Nitu Natmate, ancestral spirits of the
Papua-Melanesians, as well as other figures who bring gifts during the
Christmas holidays. Once the link between the figure of the Befana and the
ancestral spirits is established, the Befana presents herself during the big
holiday as a mythical ancestress who returns yearly. Her principal function
is that of reaffirming the bond between the family and the ancestors through
an exchange of gifts. The children receive gifts symbolizing archaic
civilizations where they were considered the representatives of the
ancestors to whom the offerings were destined, as shown by Levy-Bruhl in the
structure of the new years' eve festivities in Bering. Sometimes the Befana
receives offers of food. In the popular dramatization in Tuscany, Italy, and
elsewhere the Befana is a masked figure who guides the cortege of postulants
and receives offers from families who, in kind, receive from her the gift of
prosperity. The Befana occupies a pedagogical function of an outside
educator who rewards or punishes, and has an important role in the child's
development. This Big Grandmother presided over the various phases of the
life of the child, and of initiation rites which took place during the
festivities of the New Year.Regarding the stocking hung up on the chimney,
she is not only the container of gifts or of offerings of food but is
herself a gift, inasmuch as a manual product dedicated to mythical figures
that are patrons of yarns and weaving, close to the Befana, such as Frau
Holda and Berchta who visit homes during the Christmas period. The stockings
may also have evocative functions.In the mythical tradition, the Befana
arrives flying on a broom, or even on a donkey. This testifies to her
association with plants and animals which in antiquity had sacred values as
representatives or simulations of totem-line ancestors, as well as
divinities. In mythology, the branch is home to the spirit of the ancestors,
which is why it has assumed the magical function of flight and could have a
role of evocation as well as of distancing from the spirit. These actions
were conceived as a voyage, a flight from a far-away kingdom. Besides the
link with the cult of the hearth, the Befana personifies a close link to
fire itself, whether astral (brought from the stars, appearing as a meteor)
or earthly (for example on the eve of the Befana holiday, bonfires are lit
to burn her figure). This action is meant not so much as to exorcise a
negative entity, as to re-accompany at the end of the big holiday the spirit
of the ancestors to the kingdom beyond the tomb through the symbolism of the
ascending fire.The Epiphany holiday includes purifying rites, and
benedictions with water. The water prepared on the eve of Epiphany has a
sacred and warding-off-evil-spirits value and is used in critical moments of
family life. In the Abruzzo, Italy, it's called "Water of the Boffe. "The
figure of the Kings Magi, in the historical tradition, were priests of the
sacred fire. They were a privileged caste who, in the Zoroastrian Persia,
waited until the fire expired. The Magi symbolized the three worlds: earthy
gold, celestial incense, and myrrh from beyond the grave. These three
substances can be linked to each of the three sacred fires of Vedica, India,
and Avestica, Persia. Therefore, it is possible, through fire and gifts, to
establish a connection between the Magi and the figure of the Befana in the
expectation of the holiday of January 6.
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