Befana in Ripafratta

The tradition of the Befana returns to Ripafratta this year, on the eve of Epiphany. On the afternoon of 5 January, the Casa della Befana opens at the former Villa Danielli Stefanini nursery school, with music, lights, biscuits and hot drinks.

At around 6pm, the Befana will arrive from the bell tower: together with the children and parents waiting for her in the square, the Befana will then move to her home at the nursery school, where she will deliver gifts. At 8pm, there will be a community dinner, also at Villa Danielli Stefanini (menu, costs and registration details to be confirmed).

Gifts to be delivered by the Befana can be brought to the nursery on Sunday 4 January in the morning (from 9 am to 12 pm) and Monday 5 January in the afternoon (from 2 pm to 5 pm).

La Befana is a popular Italian figure, depicted as an old woman who flies on a broomstick on the night between 5 and 6 January to bring sweets and gifts to good children and coal to bad ones. Her name derives from “Epiphany”, the Christian festival celebrating the arrival of the Three Wise Men, to whom, according to legend, the Befana initially refused to give directions but then repented and began to give gifts to all children.