![\"re_magi_dett\"](\"http:\/\/cookwithgusto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/re_magi_dett-e1483652035930.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIn fact, “epifania” means “to appear” and, as the Three Wise Kings appeared in the middle of the desert, also the Befana appears in the sky, flying on her broom.<\/p>\n
The Befana is an old ugly hunchbacked woman, with a hooked nose and a witchery chin. She wears with poor clothes and she is covered in soot, because she usually gets in the houses passing through the chimneys in the night between the 5th and the 6th of January, to leave few gifts on the kitchen table, to be found by the children the morning after.<\/p>\n She gives chocolates, sweets and candies to the good kids, whereas for the bad ones she has only black sweet coal!<\/p>\n The story\u00a0of the Befana born when, during a very cold winter, the Three Wise Kings knocked on the Befana’s house door, asking her for the direction to get to Bethlehem. She showed them the way but she was too busy to join them in their mission. After a while, she felt really guilty and she tried to reach them, unfortunately without any result. Then, she knocked to every door on her way, and she left a present to every child, hoping one of them to be Jesus.<\/p>\n The feminine character, flying in the sky, was already very common in the old Roman tradition, mostly as holy spirits,\u00a0providing good fortune to bless and protect the development and the fertility of the fields and soil.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n