Watch Out: the Befana is Coming to Town!
More than 2000 years ago the Three Wise Men visited Jesus after his birth and gave him three symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. From that time on, the Befana comes every year, on January 6, to fill Italian kids’ stockings with all sorts of goodies!
While I am writing now, most Italian kids are sleeping and waiting for the “Befana” (Witch) to come and fill their “stockings” with lots of goodies and sweets. They can’t stay awake, no…otherwise she would spank them with her broom! They are all excited because most of the times she brings them what they asked for but didn’t get from Santa Claus! You can see that in their minds this isn’t just the day that celebrates the visit of the Three Wise Men to baby Jesus; it is basically the night when this old lady lands on their roofs with her “scarpe tutte rotte e il vestito a trullalà” (broken shoes and cobbled dress), as an Italian rigmarole says!
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