Steve Siporin
The Befana Is Returning: The Story of a Tuscan Festival
The Befana Is Returning: The Story of a Tuscan Festival
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The Befana is a costumed, singing troupe of characters that visits residents homes on the night of January 5 in certain areas of southern Tuscany, delivering toys, candies, and gifts as part of a folk custom that has recurred for centuries. This is the Befanata, a mumming tradition centered in Tuscany, whose main character is the Befana, a kindly old woman or grandmotherly witch who delivers toys, candies, and gifts. The Pigitliano Befanata is distinct in its emphasis on song and symbolic use of food. Siporin's book "The Befana Is Returning" provides a detailed introduction to the tradition and its historical and social contexts.
Format: Hardback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2022
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
On the night of January 5th, in certain areas of southern Tuscany, a costumed, singing troupe of characters visits residents' homes, expecting to be fed and feted in a folk custom that has recurred in the region for centuries. This is the Befanata, a mumming tradition centered in Tuscany, whose main character—the Befana—is a kindly old woman or grandmotherly witch who delivers toys, candies, and gifts. Part of the Christmas season, the Befana is familiar in some form in much of Italy, but very little has been written about her, despite sustained interest in European mumming traditions in general.
The Pigitliano Befanata is distinct in its emphasis on song and strong in its richly symbolic use of food, which is not only consumed at each home but is also carried away as a gift. The characters who make up the squad are unique to the Italian practice. They always include the Befana and her husband, the Befano, but other members of the befanotti vary from place to place over time. Siporin combines fieldwork and archival evidence to introduce the Befanata and its historical and social contexts: what it is, what it means, and how it feels.
The Befana Is Returning is a deeply researched, deftly insightful presentation of this living tradition that adds a large missing piece to the array of contemporary ethnographic scholarship on mumming.
Weight: 363g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780299337308
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