Asked by Nadia on the link between epiphany and the visit of the Magi to Jesus Here is a link
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Tradition Italian
Italy has a very special and original tradition of the Epiphany, which binds to the figure of the Befana. The word "Epiphany" comes from a corruption of the word "Epiphany", and call a mythical figure in the Italian collective: the famous old lady, riding on a broom and flying from rooftop to rooftop, the night Jan 5-6 ( thus putting an end to the cycle of the twelve days of Christmas) goes to take the attendance for all children, carrying a huge sack on his back. Everyone gets this in a sock (the "shoes of the Epiphany") and it depends on the type of behavior had last year and the ever-present hope of an improvement for the new year which begins: therefore always a bit 'of ash and coal for mischievous past and cakes and candy for the future promise to be good and wise.
Its origin is lost in the mists of time, down from pre-Christian magical traditions and popular culture, blending elements of folk and Christian: the Befana brings gifts in memory of those offered by the Magi to the Christ Child. The iconography is fixed: a dark and wide skirts, an apron with pockets, a shawl, a scarf or a hat on his head, a pair of worn slippers, all enlivened by a number of colored patches. [Http://www. la-befana.it/racconti.html]
La Befana, much more traditionally "Italian" of the figure of Santa Claus, has so the task to cheer a commemoration important in the eyes of children, making them the party far more cheerful and making them even closer to the original meaning of the feast to celebrate baby Jesus, in the shape of each child, and the symbolic importance of having received rich gifts by the Three Magi.Oltre that in Italy there is the cult of the Epiphany in various parts of the world, from Persia to Normandy, from Russia to North Africa. In this worship, many trace the myth of the primordial mother goddess, the lady of life and death, regeneration of nature. For others, in its shape, the image of the Goddess Befana summarizes ancestor guardian of the hearth, the sacred place of the house. It is not a case, if you need just the chimneys, to introduce the 'joy in the homes, flitting with his fantastic scopa.Un time, the Epiphany was also an opportunity for the less affluent to rack up donations in groceries by going door to door to ask for a kind of "charity". Even this tradition, alongside that of the sock, is repeated again today when we see crowds of children running from house to house on the evening of January 5 to take gifts and sweets, singing the famous nursery rhyme:
La Befana comes by night with
broken shoes
his hat to the Roman
viva viva la Befana!
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