Buona Befana!

Today is Epiphany, a national holiday in Italy. Epiphany is 12 days after Christmas in which children wake up to candy in their stockings. In a way, it's the second stage of Christmas; on Christmas, they don't have the stocking part--just the presents under the tree. The candy in the stockings is left by an old woman who looks like a witch named "Befana."  The story is that the 3 magi (wise men) went to an old woman's house and asked for directions to where the baby Jesus was. The woman's name was Befana. She didn't know where he was but she offered her home for them to stay for the night. She kept a clean house.  The next morning, filled with gratitude, they asked her to come along with them to find Jesus. She said no because she had too much housework. Later, she changed her mind, but she couldn't catch up with them. She spent the rest of her life searching for the baby Jesus. So, they have a big parade in which everyone is in medieval costumes and Befana is leading the parade, giving candy to all the children.  Because she couldn't find the Christ child, she now gives gifts to all children because she sees Jesus in every child. We were at the Palazzo Vecchio earlier today with the students to see the sculptures, and then we went back to see the parade.


Cellini's Perseus and Medusa. It shows Perseus, having just defeated Medusa, holding up her head in triumph and standing on her decapitated body.

This is a smaller copy of Michelangelo's David.  The original is in the Accademia.  They removed the original David when it was getting damaged from being outside.

This is the beginning of the parade. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a picture of Befana.