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ITALIAN TRADITIONS

Pagan witches and Mussolini: Why Italy’s Epiphany holiday has a curious history

Italy celebrates Befana on January 6th, a holiday that rivals Christmas for many Italians. But how did this staunchly Catholic nation come to worship a pagan witch?

Pagan witches and Mussolini: Why Italy's Epiphany holiday has a curious history
Women dress up for the annual Befana procession in Viterbo, Italy. The January 6th Epiphany holiday is celebrated across Italy - but where did it come from? (Photo by TIZIANA FABI / AFP)

On January 6th Italians celebrate La Befana, an ugly witch with a crooked nose, a huge chin wart, hunchback and torn shoes who flies the night skies on a broom, rewarding or punishing kids depending on how they’ve behaved. 

In the morning, Italian children rush to the fireplace to see what La Befana has left in their stockings: sweets and chocolates if they’ve been good, often also money, or ‘charcoal’ (black sugar lumps) if naughty. 

READ ALSO: How to make the most of Italy’s public holidays in 2023

It’s a deeply felt, nationalist holiday. In Piedmont, Befana scarecrows are burned to bless the new year; in Lazio locals do the ‘Befana Dive’, a swim in the cold sea, while women jokingly call each other ‘Befana’ and dress up as witches. In many villages, city piazzas and alleys there are Befana-themed masked parades. 

But how did such a Catholic nation come to worship a pagan witch? 

Its origins date back to Ancient Roman times, when it was real party. Families and friends would get together at the taberna (‘tavern’) to feast, and would also buy cakes to bring to other people’s homes as gifts.

“According to the beliefs of our Roman ancestors, on the night of January 6th female deities flew over the cultivated fields to boost the soil’s fertility and yield,” explains historian and archaeologist Giorgio Franchetti, author of several books on the Ancient Romans.

“Such goddesses had many different names. Initially it was Diana, who is not only the goddess of hunting but also of vegetation and nature, then there was Satia (deity of satiety) and Abundia (goddess of abundance), all beautiful women who physically had nothing in common with the old granny stereotype embodied by modern Befana.”

People dress up as witches during an Epiphany parade – but the original ‘Befana’ was said to be an attractive young female deity. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI / AFP)

The rural nature of the flying sorceresses was linked to the nocturnal setting during which these fertility rituals were carried out, with a shining moon and in the countryside and woods, which are all elements sacred to Diana. 

Similarly, La Befana lands on roofs at night and slides down the chimney, but today she’s a domestic, homey-looking character who’s no longer confined to rural areas. 

“January 6th was a special day for the Ancient Romans as it ended the 12-day festivity period that followed December 25th, when they celebrated the birth in a cave of God Mithras whose story resembles that of Jesus Christ,” says Franchetti.

“It was also the day of the Sol Invictus, the ‘invincible sun’, for December 25th marked the end of the dark winter days that started to become brighter and longer. 

“This entire period celebrated the beginning of a new year, of prosperity and welcomed the upcoming spring.”

In Italy Epiphany is celebrated with the tradition of La Befana, an old woman, bringing presents to children during the night of January 5th. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI / AFP)

When Christianity and the Church came along, these young sexy flying pagan goddesses were condemned and banned from worship. No longer accepted as bringers of good omen and prosperity, they were turned into outcast, terrifying witches and classified as ‘evil’. 

They became old, freakish carriers of ill-omen, and thus also of charcoal, which is the symbol of the bonfire on which alleged witches were later burnt at the stake by the Holy Inquisition. 

“The church tried to obliterate all pre-Christian rituals and festivities by overlapping these with the celebration of the Christian Epiphany, which is when the three wise men meet baby Jesus bearing gifts”, says Franchetti.

Centuries later La Befana found her greatest fan in Mussolini, who promoted her as an all-Italian, patriotic female alternative to the foreign Father Christmas. 

Mussolini had a specific reason for making her the Christmas queen. He banned all foreign-sounding and English-related words and traditions, and saw Santa Claus as an outsider to Italian culture. 

The tyrant thus substituted the ‘imported’, Anglo-Saxon Father Christmas with the Italian Befana, who has been roaming the night skies since the dawn of time. 

A street seller holds a Befana doll at a market in Rome’s Piazza Navona. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP)

In 1928 Mussolini, with the help of the regime’s propaganda, established Epifania as a national holiday. It was called La Befana Romana, or La Befana Fascista.

“It was typical of the regime to appropriate pagan and Roman myths or symbols as means of glorification and power”, says Franchetti.

Inspired by the ideal of great ancient Rome, Mussolini quite cleverly adapted and adopted pagan flying goddesses to his own ends. 

Italian elders still recall when their mothers and grandmothers during the fascist regime would gather piles of old clothes, socks and toys to give to the poor and to homeless orphans.

“It was part of the fascist regime’s pro-welfare propaganda. My mom would go through our wardrobe telling us to help her gather what we no longer needed so as to obey the call from authorities prompting families to be generous to those in need”, recalls 95-year-old Giulio Verde, a Roman pensioner. 

“On TV and radio the regime appealed to rich people in particular to offer food and old clothes to the poor and homeless through national welfare campaigns led by juvenile associations that hailed fascism’s social mission and honored Mussolini”, adds Verde.

However, La Befana’s popularity survived fascism and found supporters even after the end of World War II, as she embodied the positive, familiar image of the gift-bearer. Political parties continued using the Befana as a propaganda tool to promote their policies in favor of poor families. 

Italians also adore her because she allows us to stretch the Christmas holidays out until January 6th – and beyond if the festivity happens to fall on a Friday like this year. We have a rhyming phrase to wish her ciao ciao: “…Eh l’Epifania, che tutte le feste si porta via” (and so the epiphany brushes away all festivities).

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ITALIAN TRADITIONS

ANALYSIS: How Catholic is Italy really?

As Rome prepares to host the 2025 Jubilee, interest in Catholicism is declining in the country - but is the church still inextricably linked to Italian culture?

ANALYSIS: How Catholic is Italy really?

Italy is frequently described in news reports as an overwhelmingly Catholic country. And some 80 percent of Italians identify as Christian, according to the latest data from the Pew Research Center. Of those, 50 percent say they regularly attend church – the highest percentage in Western Europe.

But while this data confirms Christianity as prevalent in Italy, it fails to illustrate the generational gaps: according to another survey conducted by Ipsos in 2023, younger Italians born between 1997 and 2012 (which the survey’s authors label ‘Gen Zers’) are 21 percent less likely to be religious than those born between 1946 and 1964 (labelled ‘Boomers’ in the survey.)

The Ipsos survey also found an increase in young Italians believing in a “higher power” as opposed to a specific deity.

The trend of youth not identifying as Catholic should not come as a shock. Over the years, there have been a number of signs pointing to a decline in Catholicism in Italy, including a 16.5 percent decrease in priests being ordained between 1990 and 2020, civil ceremonies becoming more popular than church weddings in northern regions, and only 19 percent of Italy’s practising Catholics attending church weekly.

Theologian and author Don Matteo Armando said last year that the link between the Church and younger generations was as weak as ever in history.

“Certainly the greatest evidence regarding the findings of religious sentiment among Italians is highlighted in the growing indifference and detachment of younger generations with respect to Catholicism and Christianity,” he said in an interview with Il Mattino.

Italy is a secular state by law. At no point does Italy’s constitution indicate Catholicism as the national religion. In fact, it even goes one step further and promotes religious freedom under Article 19. There is no Church of Italy like there is a Church of England. The state’s religion is not Catholicism.

READ ALSO: Pope addresses growing conflict within the church 

But does legislation necessarily reflect social behaviour, traditions, and customs?

There is of course a long Catholic history in the country. Italy’s first constitution, the Albertine Statute, laid out Catholicism as the national religion. What’s more, senators have in recent years questioned the clarity of the current constitution in defining what ‘secular’ means, claiming that France’s constitution outlines secularism in a clearer way. 

And while the constitution states that laws must be secular, blasphemy remains an offence: fines of up to €309 are in place, though they are not handed out frequently.

An empty church in Italy. Photo by AFP/ Alberto Pizzoli.

Italy’s current prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, also identifies as a Catholic. During her election campaign in 2022 she declared: “I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a Christian.” The last part of this sentence, which was reported in newspapers worldwide, does not exactly scream secular constitution.

Meanwhile, it is not unusual to see crucifixes on the walls of public offices such as police stations or town halls. Saints’ days such as Santa Lucia, Santo Stefano, and All Saints are also extremely popular and some of them are public holidays. 

It is also important to note the north-south divide: people in Italy’s southern regions say they go to church far more frequently than those in the south. According to data from Italian statistics bureau Istat, 46.8 percent of people in Tuscany said they hadn’t been to church at all in the previous year, compared to only 17.5 percent in Campania.

READ ALSO: Pope warns Italy’s priests to stop charging for weddings and funerals

Overall, 16.4 percent of people in central Italy and 18.8 percent of people from the north said they went to church once a week. In the south, the figure was 23.2.

While the Istat data doesn’t distinguish between Catholics and other Christian denominations such as Protestants, other Christian denominations account for only 4 percent of Italy’s religious composition.

This north-south divide here is generally thought to be down to a number of reasons, including family traditions, and historical cultural differences, but one theory is that it’s due to the north and centre being closer to mainland Europe and therefore other religions and cultures.

When looking at law alone, Italy is not a Catholic country. But when analysing society, it is. There are rare occasions when the two match up, such as with public blasphemy laws. Perhaps this apparent contradiction isn’t surprising when we consider that the Vatican City towers over and sits within the beating heart of Rome.

Either way, one thing stands out: Italy’s younger generations are less interested in Catholicism than ever before.

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