Rome’s annual Christmas Fair - held in Piazza Navona - is just beginning. The majestic baroque fountains of the piazza are filled with stalls selling presepe figures (many straight from presepe headquarters in Naples), Christmas candy, ornaments, toys, puppets, and more. Flying about amidst the brightly lit stalls are thousands of Befane or witch-like women riding and holding brooms. What are these witchy women doing amongst all the angels, sheep, and twinkling stars? They’re there because Italian tradition says that Christmas gifts don’t come from Santa, but that they’re delivered by a witch-like housewife named La Befana.
The legend says that on the evening that Jesus was born, the Wisemen paid a visit to Befana’s house on their journey to see the newborn child. They asked La Befana to join them in their quest, but she refused their offer, claiming that her household chores were just too pressing and couldn’t be ignored.
Later, the same evening, a shepherd stopped by her cottage and likewise invited her to join him in going to see the child. Again she refused.
When night fell, La Befana was amazed to see a great light in the sky. She realized that she’d made a terrible error in not joining the wisemen and the shepherd, and so she gathered up some toys that had belonged to her own child, who, sadly, had died. She rushed out of the house to find the wisemen and the shepherd - in a such a hurry that she took her broom with her!
Thus far, her efforts have been fruitless. Poor Befana hasn’t managed to find the wisemen, the shepherd, or Baby Jesus, but each year she continues her search, giving gifts to the children she encounters along the way – toys for the good and coal, carbone, for the bad.
