La Befana e le tradizioni del Natale italiano

In Italy, Christmas does not end on the twenty-fifth of December.

The holidays continue until the sixth of January, the day of the Befana.

But who is the Befana?

She is an old woman who flies on a broomstick on the night between the fifth and sixth of January.

So, children hang a stocking near the fireplace before going to sleep.

If the child has been good, the stocking fills with sweets and little gifts.

If instead the child has been naughty, they find only coal.

Now: today the coal is almost always fake, made of black sugar.

But the Befana is not just for children.

Even adults exchange stockings full of sweets and small gifts.

There are also different traditions from region to region.

In some areas people make bonfires in the square on the evening of the fifth of January.

People say that the smoke from the bonfire predicts the weather of the new year.

The Befana is therefore a symbol that unites magic, family, and the end of the holidays.