Who is La Befana and What Does She Do?
Just like Santa Claus is the benevolent counterpart to an ogre, Befana is a kind witch. She is an ugly old hunchbacked lady with a crooked nose. She is dressed in rags and covered in soot (for she enters the houses through the chimney) and she travels straddling a twig broom and carries a self-replenishing sack (or basket) full of goodies. Candies and toys go into the stockings left hanging for her by good children, while the lumps of coal, onions or garlic are given to naughty children in punishment (though nowadays, the coal is really a lump of black rock candy). The Way it Was Until a few decades ago, when the majority of families were poor and certainly couldn’t afford sweets and chocolate, the Befana’s typical treats might have been nuts, dried figs or chestnuts, an apple or a tangerine and maybe even the occasional rag doll or wooden toy. The Legend of La Befana The legend goes that the Three Kings on their way to visit the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem called at La Befana’s hut for ho
