Befana
Befana ( Italian : from Epifania ) is the name of a witch (or a female demon ) of the Italian folk belief , who flies from house to house on a broomstick on the night of January 5th to 6th in search of the baby Jesus and presents gifts brings or punishes.
The name comes from Epiphany , the church festival of the three kings Kaspar, Melchior and Balthasar. According to legend, the witch is said to have heard the good news from the shepherds. The star of Bethlehem should lead them to the manger. However, since she left too late, she missed the star.
In the course of time, the positive aspects of her figure predominated, so that today she is primarily considered a good witch. It represents a parallel figure to the Alpine Perchta and the Central European Frau Holle .
During fascism , the Befana fascista was celebrated on the occasion of the Epiphany from 1928 . It was a charity event organized by the National Fascist Party where gifts were given to poor children. This custom continued during the Second World War and in the Italian Social Republic .
literature
- Norbert Borrmann: Lexicon of monsters, ghosts and demons. The creatures of the night from myth, legend, literature and film. The (slightly) different who's who. Lexikon-Imprint-Verlag, Berlin, 2000, ISBN 3-89602-233-4 .
- Stephan Sigg : A broom for the Christmas witch Befana. Kaufmann Verlag, Lahr 2008, ISBN 978-3-7806-0848-2 .
- Thomas Hauschild : Santa Claus. The true story , S. Fischer-Verlag: Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-10-030063-8 .
