La Befana: the story of Italy’s Christmas witch

La befana story

The story of La Befana, Italy’s Christmas witch: the magical character that celebrates the epiphany in Italy and ‘carries away’ the festivities.

One of my favorite winter traditions is the celebration of Epiphany in Italy (6th of January).

A festivity dear to children and adults, it has ancient origins and a fantastic background story.

This is the history of la Befana (aka Italy’s Christmas witch)!

Why celebrate the 6th of January

Italy celebrates the 6th of January for two reasons: the first is the commemoration of the day when the Three Kings got to Jesus’s crib bearing gifts (the Epiphany).

The second is somehow connected with this tradition but has more of a popular flavor to it: it’s the celebration of ‘la Befana’, or what abroad is sometimes referred to as ‘Italy’s Christmas witch’.

The Italian tradition of spending the evening of the fifth of January in anticipation of the arrival of la Befana is probably the one that I miss the most, now that I celebrate Christmas in Ireland and the one that I find the hardest to replicate and keep alive when abroad.

It is an old, traditional Italian story (much older than the one about Father Christmas: it dates back to the XIII century) and I am very fond of it, like many other Italians.

It brightens up the end of the festive season and pushes back for about 24 more hours the moment when we have to get back to reality, take down the Christmas decorations and brace ourselves for the return to work.

La Befana story is also, I believe, pretty funny: like with all old traditions, there are a few different versions of it, but the one below is one of the better known.

If you want to learn more about the festivities in Italy, you may also have a look at this article about Christmas in Rome. 

La befana Italy's christmas witch who comes to kids' houses on the 6th of january
La befana is depicted in many ways but usually with a friendly face

What does la Befana look like? Is she Italy’s Christmas witch?

La Befana is an old lady or, most precisely, a witch.

She is represented as an old and skinny woman, wrinkly and with a big curved nose, and she is probably originally from a very cold place since she goes around dressed in rags, with many many layers of woolen scarves one of top of the other to keep her warm.

Like all witches, she has magical powers and in particular, she is able to fly with the help, as you may have guessed, of an old broomstick.

Where does the name Befana come from?

The name ‘Befana’ appears for the first time in a script from 1549 and probably is a corruption of the Greek word ‘epiphany’, the festivity celebrated on the 6th of January and commemorating the moment when the Magi saw baby Jesus for the first time.

Indeed, her legend is linked with the one of the Three Wise Men and it dates back to the moment when Jesus was born or, more specifically, to about 12 days after that event.

What is the story of la Befana?

Tradition has it that on the 5th of January the Three Kings ran into la befana while she was sweeping the floor and taking care of the housework.

The Kings stopped to talked with her and asked if she might be interested in joining them on their journey to see the new baby.

La Befana, however, houseproud as she was, declined the offer: she had way too much housework to do and couldn’t possibly find the time to join them.

The Kings left and la Befana returned to her chores, but it didn’t take her long to realize that the baby they were so fond of going to see was no ordinary child and that she should have most definitively accepted their invitation – her house could wait!

So, she decided to set off on a journey on her own and, loaded with a big bag of presents for the baby, jumped on her broomstick and started to fly.

She didn’t have directions on how to get to Bethlehem (the three Kings probably didn’t tell her about the star) but she was a very determined woman and she spent the whole night traveling around the world bringing presents to all the houses she visited, hoping to find baby Jesus in one of them.

To him, she would have brought sweets and a bit of coal (this was a symbol of fertility in pre-Christian times) and this is what to this day Italian children find on the morning of the 6th of January, usually piled up in a long stocking hanging from the chimney… or possibly the kitchen aspirator!

How to welcome la Befana to your house

Children do not need to leave stockings for la Befana to fill as she usually brings her own.

However, like Father Christmas, la Befana appreciates if you leave a glass of wine for her, to make her warm during the long journey, so if your children want to leave her a drink, may this be wine or milk, she will make sure to take at least a sip.

Unlike Santa, la Befana doesn’t take requests or wished but rather leaves sweets and, often, a small gift that can fit in the stocking.

A fun fact about her: la Befana maintains her good housekeeping habits when she comes to you too. She is known to use her broom not only to fly around but also to sweep your floor!

With this gesture, she gives a helping hand and also ‘sweeps away’ your trouble, making the start of your year a clean slate.

Thank you Befana, I’ll make sure we have the best Valpolicella out for you!

This post was first published in 2016 and has now been fully updated _ January 2020

9 thoughts on “La Befana: the story of Italy’s Christmas witch

  1. virginie says:

    Of course she’ll come home: Sugar coal and sweets are ready 😉 I’ll try to think of the wine -if I don’t drink it myself ! Of course if she sweeps my floor, she really deserves it !! Cheers 🙂

  2. elaine massey says:

    Wow I never knew anything about this! We go as you probably see to Disney World a lot and at Epcot, at the Italy Pavilion there is a woman I believe now dressed as Befana! They have holidays around the world and tell all of the countries Christmas traditions but as many times as we have been I haven’t listened. A friend of mine said that the Italy tradition was her favorite. I see why. Thanks for the great story!

  3. Kirsty Marrins says:

    I love this! My husband is Italian so I knew of befana but I didn’t know the background. I’m going to impress him now with my knowledge 🙂

  4. Amy says:

    Brilliant! I am introducing this to my children, and we are most definitely we are leaving out a glass of wine…or perhaps a bottle for her! Love this!

  5. Nicole says:

    Wow, I knew nothing of this story before. I absolutely love learning about other traditions, thanks for sharing. Love it!

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