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La Befana is a character in Italian folklore, similar to Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. The character originated in Rome, then spread as a tradition to peninsular Italy.

In popular folklore, Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of January 6 to fill socks with candies if you are a good child or a lump of coal it they you are a bad one. Being a good housekeeper, many says she will sweep the floor before she leaves. The child's family typically leaves a small glass of wine and plate with a few morsels of food for the Befana.

As usually portrayed as an old lady riding in a broomstick wearing a black shawl and is covered with soot because she enters housed through chimney.

The legend of the Befana has an important role in the imagination of all children in the world. Those who wish to relieve the magic of the first wonders of infancy and understand the meaning of origin of this extraordinary figure, should be prepared to undertake a long voyage that will carry them back in time, to the origin of the human history. We'll discover what makes this personage so mysterious and arcane, because this little old so dear to the children has continued them for centuries, and they still await her arrival on the night of her holiday.

Many people believe that the name Befana is derived from the mispronunciation of the Italian world epifania in English meaning epiphany. Others point to the name being derivative of Bastrina, the gifts associated with the goddess Strina.

The Befana is also origin to the mysterious rites of the Celtic peoples once inhabiting the whole Pianura Padana and parts of the Alps, when wicker puppets were set on the fire in honor of ancient God. The witch, the woman magician took the form of Befana. In many cultures the relations between grown-ups and children is based on the observance of rules achieve through the fear of the punishment and expectations of reward. To this family of figures belong the ogre and witch, transformed into more positive and pedagogical figure of Santa Claus and the Befana.

The tradition La Befana appears to incorporate other pre-Christian popular elements as well, adapted to Christian culture and related to the celebration of the New Year. The old lady character should then represent the older year just passed, ready to be burned in order to give place to the new just part.

What we nowadays call the Befana is an image coming from the immemorial layers of cultures and symbols. On the one side was the Christmas tradition of the epiphany, the first "revelation" of Christ as man and God to the Magi who come with gifts for the messiah. On the other side were the many folk and pagan traditions connected to the New Year, and to the twelve days following the winter solstice which in the centuries came to be superimposed on the Christian Christmas Cycle.

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