La Befana and Epiphany in Italy

Tonight is the night Italian children hang up their stockings, waiting for them to be filled with gifts by La Befana on January 6 for Epiphany. Italy's traditional celebration includes the tale of a white-haired witch known as the "Befana" who arrives on her broomstick during the night of January 5 and fills the stockings with toys and sweets for the good children and lumps of coal for the bad ones. Epiphany is the 12th day of Christmas when the three Wise Men gave Baby Jesus their gifts. According to the tale, the night before they arrived at the manger they stopped at the shack of an old woman and invited her to come along but she was busy. Later, she decided to join them but got lost so she flies around on her broomstick each year on the 11th night, bringing gifts to children in hopes that she might find the Baby Jesus.

In Rome, following another Epiphany tradition, a procession of hundreds of people in medieval costumes will walk along the wide avenue leading up to the Vatican, carrying symbolic gifts for the Pope. The Pope will say a morning mass in St Peter's Basilica to commemorate the visit of the Wise Men bearing gifts for Jesus.

For more on Epiphany, the Greece for Visitors guide tells us how Epiphany is celebrated in Greece.