La Befana

[froglover]

I discovered La Befana, "la strega noel" or as one might say "Christmas witch" a couple of years ago. A friend had a picture of her on the wall. She traditionally brings presents to Italian children on epiphany eve. I'd been planning to organise some sort of La Befana event on epiphany eve when I discovered that the local ("local" here= inner suburbs of Melbourne Australia) Italian community had beaten me to it and had a La Befana play in a park with activities and witch-making workshops etc.

 

I took the kids to it for a few years, didn't happen this year....But just the other day my son dragged me into an extremely tacky Christmas warehouse which sold decorations mostly for shops, singing reindeer etc; and lo and behold there was a lifesize La Befana also for sale among the Santas. The nice woman on the counter happened to be an english person and told me that La Befana was fairly well known in england.

 

What do people know think and feel about La Befana here? There are not many positive images of the Goddess as Hag around in popular culture, some might say she is it.....but an Italian friend tells me there is an Italy a broader steroetype of the "strega nonna" a benevolent stereotype. But another italin friend only knows "strega" as an insult....

Edited November 3, 2009 by froglover
spelling typos

[spinney]

What do people know think and feel about La Befana here?

I have honestly never heard of her .

[Guest Oakbuchanan]

Never heard of her either, though why someone would say 'La Befana' would be well known in England is beyond me...

[froglover]

Never heard of her either, though why someone would say 'La Befana' would be well known in England is beyond me...

 

Well, that is what I thought. No doubt my informant was unusually cosmopolitan; but it was striking that La Befana appeared in a mass culture Xmas shop.

 

La Befana is pretty interesting though, she is a real ticketted witch, rides a broomstick and everything. I'd heard/read that her popularity is centred on Rome and that she has receded in recent years before Santa Claus. But she seems to be making a comeback, something I'd like to encourage.

 

There is a fair bit about her on the web, here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Befana

 

There are several legends of origin, two Christian ones are (1) that she was sweeping her floor whan the magi came past. They asked her to come with them, and she said she would follow on when she had finished her housework...she never quite caught up and goes looking for the Christ child every epiphany eve. (ie January 5th, Old Christmas Eve) or alternatively (2) that she was the mother of one of the children killed in Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. Maddened by grief she searched for and eventually found the Christ child in the belief he was her own, and he blessed her so that she became the gift giver.

 

In either case in my view she represents the people who do the world's work and suffer the world's pain but are largely written out of history.

 

I think she is worth encouraging on several grounds. Apart from the philosophical ground implied above there is also the practical consideration that the festive drunken fol-de-rol side of Christmas is best separated from the gift-giving side, I would like to adopt the Spanish and Italian (etc?) tradition which brings presents for the children on the evening before January 6th. "Three King's Day".

 

My own view of La Befana is that she obviously descends at whatever remove from Beloved Hecate, who can "give to each man his heart's desire" as I think Hesiod says.

 

As for old Father Christmas himself I like him best in his old incarnation as the spirit of merrymaking. The modern picture of him is of course based on the work of the nineteenth century American cartoonist Thomas Nast, but Nast's "Santa Claus" creation was plasticated appallingly by Coca Cola and Disney and the like.......and even Nast's work was essentially advertising for the department stores, I don't know that Santa Claus is reclaimable......

 

Anyway, it occurs to me that your average traditional-witch-with-children might have mixed feelings at Chrsitmas; and La Befana is a legitimate traditional witch-friendly alternative.

Edited November 4, 2009 by froglover
Minor clarification replacing pronoun.

[froglover]

(2) that she was the mother of one of the children killed in Herod's Massacre of the Innocents. Maddened by grief she searched for and eventually found the Christ child in the belief he was her own, and he blessed her so that she became the gift giver.

 

Suddenly occurred to me that this is could be a garbled version of the Demeter story...Demeter-as-Crone searching for her lost child in the winter. (As an Australian I don't automatically associate Christmas with winter.) Befana gives gifts of food which is I suppose sort of Demeter-like. Hecate, in the classical version, comes into the Demeter story as an ally of Demeter; whether or to what degree Demeter-as-Crone and Hecate should be seen as the same person I don't know. (Hecate's crone persona is failry late....but I suppose that is a digression.) In any case, the Massacre of the Innocents happened after the visit of the magi at epiphany so this story breaks the connection of La Befana with the epiphany, so it can't be a post facto story made up to explain why she gives gifts at epiphany, like the comic story about how she was too busy sweeping the house appears to be. So I'd guess the tragic story is the older one.

 

I notice that a stregheria site on the web calls La Befana a fire goddess.....I can't quite see how at this stage.

 

What I haven't found so far is any information about just how old "La Befana" in substantially her present form is. I wouldn't be at all surprised if she is the creation of some forgotten novlist of fabulist of the maybe 18th century; that wouldn't stop me thinking of her as a lightly baptised Hecate but it would still be interesting to know.

[Guest Oakbuchanan]

Thanks for link... Interesting stuff. I was always under the impression is that St. Nicolas/ Santa Claus who used to fill socks with gifts...So this puts a whole new twist on the story.. If I was shown those pictures on the link, without knowing the festival, I would have guessed halloween, rather than Epiphany!

 

Just came across these which add meat to the bones:

 

http://scuole.provincia.ps.it/dd.pesaro1/Lavori%20Netd@ys/epiphany.htm

 

http://www.amoretravelguides.com/blog/la-befana-an-italian-christmas-legend.php

 

Definately a good alternative to the more well known traditions... I have family in Spain who give gifts on 'Epiphany' as opposed to Christamas.. On one of those links above it claims that The name 'La Befana' derives from the word Epiphany.

 

Yes your right about Santa Claus being lynched by Coca cola, who gave him the familiar Red costume. The power of advertising huh! Funny how Father Christmas and Santa Claus tend to get lumped together as the same person aswell.

 

This is link you might find interesting:

 

http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/

Edited November 4, 2009 by Oakbuchanan

[froglover]

http://scuole.provincia.ps.it/dd.pesaro1/Lavori%20Netd@ys/epiphany.htm

 

http://www.amoretravelguides.com/blog/la-befana-an-italian-christmas-legend.php

 

.....

This is link you might find interesting:

 

http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/

 

All interesting links, thanks.

[Guest Oakbuchanan]

Your welcome...:)

[WaterWolf83]

Thank you!! I had never before heard of "Le Befana" this is very neat. Thanks for the new info and links.

Brandi

[Mountain Witch]

"Befana" is another Italian word for "Epiphany" (as in the holiday, not a sudden realization of something), generally used in older, rural areas. Cosmopolitan-types call it "Epifania", which is just Italianizing the English word. La Befana is considered to be a "good witch", handing out presents on January 6th but is considered rather grotesque-looking, so the word also means "old hag" or "old witch".

 

Raven Grimassi, the self-proclaimed expert on Italian Witchcraft, theorizes that she is a surviving memory of the goddess Fauna. There's a couple of pages on her and her consort, Befano, in his book "Italian Witchcraft".

 

From what I've read it seems to me that, like a lot of other things, a pagan holiday has been adopted by the Christians to get folks into Church. Or, the witching community combined one with the other, which was fairly common in Italy to keep out of the hands of the Inquisitors. Unfortunately, nothing is known to survive that explains the original holiday. (At least I haven't come across anything, yet, in either English or Italian.)

 

Based on what my Italian friends have told me, the celebration of Epiphany/Befana is dying out as the commercial Christmas has taken hold. How sad.

[Abraxia]

I doubt very much La Befana and Saint Nick have been confused, more likely different local legends with the same theme as one is Italian and one is from around Holland.