We have often seen many such witches in movies and cartoons who ride a broom in a black dress and look quite scary. You may not know but this legend of witches has come from Italy. Befana was one such witch who is considered to be the Santa Claus of Italy. Some people believe that Befana is a good witch who treats people according to their deeds, but some even consider her evil and a follower of Satan. For Italians, 6th January marks the end of the Christmas season and it is believed that on this night Bafana comes wearing a black shawl and rides a broom. She enters the house through the chimney and leaves a lot of gifts for the good children, including toys, candy, or fruits, and on the other hand, leaves coal or dark candy ("carbone"), onions, or garlic for the bad children.
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Talking about its origin, two stories about Befana are quite famous. According to the first story, when Three Wise Men from the east went out to find baby Jesus at the time of his birth, following a star, they asked an old woman about the directions to where the Son of God was. Although she did not know the way, but she took them inside her home, provided food and shelter for a night, and took care of them. The wise men asked the woman to accompany them on this journey to find the baby Jesus, but she refused, saying that she was too busy with her household chores. After they left, she realized that she had made a big mistake. She immediately set out in search of those three men and Jesus, but couldn't find them. She didn't know Jesus, so to this day, she is searching for the little baby and left candies for each child so that if any of them would be Jesus, he would get those candies and forgive her.
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According to another version, Befana was an ordinary woman who was saddened by the death of her only child whom she greatly loved. This grief maddened her completely, but when Jesus was born, she felt as if her child had returned. She immediately went out to see Jesus and eventually met him and presented him with gifts to please him. This made Jesus very much delighted and he gave her the gift of becoming the mother of every child in Italy, and since then, she goes out to present gifts to the children on the night of Epiphany.
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