waiting for the Befana to arrive

Scuola Materna Barga December 2000

The sound of a ringing bell heralds the arrival of the
Befana.She has already collected the socks left out for her and
now brings these same socks back, but this time no longer empty.
They are now full of ……..

Well, it depends, if the child has been good then the sock will
be full of sweets, if they were bad……..just some lumps of
coal for the fire

So, just who is the Befana ? She (actually it’s a man who plays the Befana) comes down
from the mountains….hence the large boots. Flies on a broomstick.
Is generally very, very ugly and has a horrible screeching voice.

Also, s/he arrives not on December 25th but on the night of
the 5th January

Now,
where have we heard bits of this story before?

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