la befana

Viene viene la Befana Vien dai monti a notte. Activities include dancing and juggling singing in the streets and appearances by hundreds of Befanas who begin their Epiphany gift-giving journeys by handing out sweets to children at the festival.

La Befana The Traditional Witchs Costume For The Epiphany Holiday By Salvatore Chiariello Via Shutterstock Creepy Vintage Epiphany Epiphany Holiday

On the other side were the many folk and pagan traditions connected to the New Year and to the twelve days following the winter solstice which in the centuries came to be superimposed on the Christian Christmas cycle.

. The Epiphany is a national holiday across Italy with public offices closed and marks the official end of the Christmas season. In Italian folklore La Befana is a witch who brings good children treats on the morning of the Epiphany January 6. When she regrets her decision she sets out to bring gifts to the Child but never finds him.

The biggest La Befana festival takes place in Urbania her traditional home. According to the Italian legend La Befana a witch-like woman riding on a broom refused to join the Wise Men on their journey to see the baby Jesus. La Befana which coincides with the feast of the Epiphany on 6 January is an annual public holiday across Italy.

Some regions where the religious holiday of the Epiphany is held in a higher regard such as Umbria Le Marche and Latium have big festivals and markets and many people like to dress in costume as Befana. What we nowadays call the Befana is an image coming from immemorial layers of cultures and symbols. La Befana is a very friendly and amiable Italian witch who rides around on a broomstick.

But if you were bad look out you may wake up to a lump of coal. La Befana translated to the witch is a well-known witch in Italian folklore who flies around on her broomstick once a year on the eve of the great feast Epiphany. Does she say Ho ho ho and associate with red-nosed reindeer too.

She swoops down chimneys to bring gifts to the children of Italy on her flying broomstick similar to. Another version is given in a poem by Giovanni Pascoli. The Befana comes by night With her shoes all tattered and torn She comes dressed in the Roman way Long live the Befana.

La Befana vien di notte Con le scarpe tutte rotte Col vestito alla romana Viva Viva La Befana. Instead she leaves gifts for other children. Every year on January 5 residents of Urbania host an enormous celebration that attracts between 30000 and 50000 people.

She is represented as an old and skinny woman wrinkly and with a big curved nose and she is probably originally from a very cold place since she goes around dressed in rags with many many layers of woolen scarves one of top of the other to keep her warm. As everyone knows in Italian folklore La Befana brings presents to the. She often smiles and carries a sack full of candies and gifts.

The modern day Befana is now celebrated throughout Italy. The English translation is. La Befana is an old lady or most precisely a witch.

On the one side was the Christian tradition of the Epiphany the first revelation of Christ as man and God to the Magi who came with gifts for the Messiah. Italians celebrate the religious feast of the Epiphany or the more popular folklore version of La Befana on 6 January which falls on a Wednesday in 2021.

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