Today I learned about a new Italian holiday. The Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th (today) and is a public Italian holiday! Yesterday I was pretty confused about what the holiday actually was. Paolo kept talking about finding me a sock to put out by the Christmas tree (my thoughts...hmmm I thought that was Christmas?). In the end we found a paper bag and drew a stocking on it...we are so creative. The holiday is actually derived from the day that the wise men brought gifts to the manger for Jesus. Just like most holidays the original meaning is not entirely present in the way it is celebrated. The kids were excited (and talking about socks) because La Befana, an old witch, comes during the night and fills their stockings with either sweets and candy (for good children) or coal (for bad children)...sound familiar? The story of La Befana is derived from when the wise men and shepherds were trying to find Bethlehem. The wise men asked her for directions and she refused, later a shepherd asked and again she refused. Later in the night she saw a great light in the sky and decided to join the wise men and shepherds to bring gifts to Jesus. However, she got lost and never made it to the manger. To repent she now flies around the night of the 5th (or the 11th night of Christmas) bringing gifts to children hoping that she'll find baby Jesus.
So basically I woke up this morning to the kids dragging me towards there stockings to find lots and lots of candy!
For more info about the Epiphany or La Befana check out: http://goitaly.about.com/od/festivalsandevents/a/epiphany.htm.
Not really a very eventful holiday but cute and a definite bonus to the end of the Christmas vacation!
Ciao!
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment