06/01/2025
Barbarano Romano and Parco Marturanum
Befana, One of the most awaited moments in Tusci, for adults and children alike.
In fact,
the Befana was the one and only giver of gifts and the night between 5 and 6 January was the magical night of the old lady riding her broom from house to house to leave gifts (Santa Claus was imported after WWII only ).
Befana derives from the word ,
distorted into Beffania and finally Befana, which means apparition, and is linked to the visit of the Magi to Jesus.
According to a legend,
after 12 nights from Jesus'birth, three richly dressed men knocked on the door of an old lady's house and asked her the way for Bethlehem.
The old lady showed them the way and the three gentlemen, the Three Wise Men, asked her to follow them to pay homage to the new born Jesus.
The old lady declined the invitation, but she immediately regretted not having followed them and went out in search of the three men,
knocking on every door and leaving gifts for every child she found in the hope that it was Jesus.
In reality, the origin of this festival seems to have pagan ancient rural origins.
On the twelfth night from the winter solstice, the ancient Romans celebrated the death and rebirth of nature through Mother Nature and it was believed that precisely at that night female figures flew over the cultivated fields, in order to bring prosperity to future crops.
This representation of Mother Nature who brings prosperity and gift, was personified by the sabine Goddess , who was honored by a ceremony of gift exchange at the beginning of the year, when at the same time a propitious procession would depart from the Wood of Strenia along the Via Sacra, in the heart of the Roman Forum.
Since we are in a "marginal" period, in which the world must be re-founded and human relationships re-created and strengthened,
first-time offerings are given as an auspicious symbol to the sleeping earth and to men strenae (from the goddess Strenia, that means "health !" in Sabines' language),
because gifts bring men closer to the Gods....
The Befana would represent so the real conclusion of the old year with her appearance as an old woman, almost as a witch,
who bring gifts, from toys, sweets and dried fruit for good children to ash and coal for the children who have not behaved well during the year.
The arrival of the Befana was celebrated by the Romans in the streets of the city in a very noisy way.
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