What if La Befana Remembers?
I think of La Befana today as a figure who has carried the weight of countless stories. She has been a goddess, a guide, a penitent, and a symbol of renewal.
Every January 6th, the people of Italy eagerly await the arrival of La Befana, the old woman who sweeps through the skies on her broomstick, delivering sweets to good children and coal to those who made questionable choices. To some she is a symbol of Christian tradition, connected to the Feast of the Epiphany. But if you do some digging beneath the layers of folklore and faith you just may find a deeper truth—a story steeped in ancient myth, tracing her lineage back to goddesses of renewal and transformation.
Lets dig in!
In the Christian legend La Befana is an old woman approached by the Magi as they search for the baby Jesus. They invite her to join them, but she says no-she is too busy cleaning her house. (The most quintessentially Italian reason for not going anywhere) Later, regretting her decision and maybe suffering from a bit of FOMO, she gathers gifts and sets out to find the Christ child, but it is too late! (This is where the good old Italian/Christian guilt sets in) and she decides to roam the world on Epiphany Eve, bringing gifts to children in hopes of redeeming her missed opportunity.
As an Italian American woman who fancies a clean house and has had her share of the obligatory Catholic school guilt, this story of remorse and redemption tracks, but it is only one version of La Befana. To truly understand her we have to dig deeper into the layers of history and myth.
Long before Christianity, the ancient Romans celebrated the goddess Strenia, a deity of the new year, purification, and well-being. During the festival of Saturnalia, people exchanged “strenae”—gifts symbolizing good fortune. Strenia was believed to grant blessings for the coming year, her influence tied to the cyclical renewal of time. (Are you starting to see some similarities here?) Even in name, as la Befana is often referred to as "Strega" , but there is more.
La Befana’s broom, is seen as a tool for sweeping away the old, and echos Strenia’s purifying powers. Her delivery of gifts is a lot like the Roman tradition of exchanging tokens to usher in prosperity. It’s not hard to imagine how Strenia’s attributes transformed into those of the benevolent Befana as pagan customs meshed with emerging Christian practices.
We cant stop here though , Let's dig a little deeper into Greek mythology to try and understand what might have been a mythological and faith based game of telephone, with everything changed just a little bit in the retelling.
La Befana may have connections to Hecate, the goddess of magic, crossroads, and transitions. Hecate, often depicted as an older woman, carried torches to guide those who were lost. She was a protector of homes and a keeper of secrets, straddling the line between the seen and unseen worlds.
La Befana as an old woman traveling under the cover of night does share similarities with Hecate’s mysterious and guiding presence. Her role as a bearer of blessings—and sometimes warnings—suggests a divine duality that both nurtures and disciplines, much like the goddess of the crossroads. After all the tale of La Befana is complex, it does straddle the darkness and the light, but let's keep going!
Maybe there is a pagan legacy here hidden in plain site.
Across Europe, pre-Christian winter traditions host their share of wise women or crones who brought blessings to households. In Germanic lore, Frau Holle is a suspiciously similar to La Befana. She rewarded diligent workers with gold and punished the lazy ones with soot, much like Befana’s sweets and coal. These figures were often tied to the agricultural cycle, embodying the wisdom of the old year and the hope of the new.
Over time, these powerful female figures were recast as witches or benevolent grandmothers, their divine origins obscured but not forgotten. La Befana, with her broom and bag of gifts, carries remnants of these ancient archetypes. I can't stop thinking about her, she is so much more than an old lady filled with regret trying to overcompensate for her errors by giving gifts.
I think of La Befana today as a figure who has carried the weight of countless stories. She has been a goddess, a guide, a penitent, and a symbol of renewal. But what if La Befana remembers who she truly is? What then? Maybe the story changes.
As she soars through the night sky, perhaps La Befana recalls her days as Strenia, bestowing blessings and ushering in the new year. Perhaps she feels the pull of Hecate, standing at the crossroads of time and space, guiding humanity through transitions. And perhaps she knows that her broom is more than a tool for sweeping—it is a symbol of her power to cleanse, transform, and renew.
This remembrance, this spark of divinity, reconnects La Befana to her roots. She is not merely a Christian symbol of missed opportunity but a timeless figure of hope, change, and the eternal cycle of life.
As I welcome another Epiphany, I honor La Befana for all she represents. She reminds me to embrace both the old and the new, to find magic in transitions, and to remember the divine power that lies within each of us. For like La Befana, we are all capable of sweeping away the past and all the stories that are too small to hold who we really are. We are capable of remembering our powerful roots and the goddesses we really are and have always been.