Folklore

In this section I will be including legends and lore (and mythology)from various cultures that I have gathered over the years. I believe that they help give us a greater understanding of times when natural harmony was the norm. Some of the lore show how customs and cultures developed. This is just a begining for this section. I have many notes to rewrite from my collections.

If you would like to contribute legends and tales please use the Folklore Contribution form to do so. It is always nice to share what we have learned with others.

Eygptian

More information on the Aborigine

Italian Lore

Etruscans

Roman & Greek (History, brief)

It is a great mistake to think that there are no fairies in Italy, and one of the nicest is called La Befana, and she belongs to Christmas just like the holly and mistletoe and snowmen. She comes only once a year as the Three Kings do, and she is not young and beautiful, but old and bent and more like a witch than a fairy.

In fact, before people realized how kind she was, they thought of her as a wicked witch and rang bells made of earthenware and blew glass trumpets to frighten her away. But all this has been forgotten now, and anyhow, the Befana never deserved it as her story will show.

The first thing to notice about her is that she is very ancient, and when Our Lord was born the Befana was already a little bent and her hair was white. She had a tiny cottage outside Bethlehem and after her husband died she lived there alone, and she was always rather sad because she had no children to keep her company.

Well it happened that the winter two thousand years ago was extremely cold and all the poor people suffered very much, and the Befana got so stiff in the knees that she couldn't hurry for anyone, but still, when her firewood got low, she had to struggle out into the woods on the opposite hill to where her cottage stood; but on that particular night the moonlight was so wonderful that the Befana could hardly tear herself away from the window, and if she had known how to read she could easily have done so without a candle. Somehow the whole world seemed alive; "How strange," thought the Befana, "the sky looks as though it were quivering; I'm sure I see things moving, and what a frost there must be, I can hear the ground singing." And though she was not at all an imaginative person, she stayed at the window a long time, and it was past midnight when she went to bed. She woke up late and the sun was shining and the air was very crisp and brilliant, and the Befana felt elated and hardly groaned at all about her old bones though she was stiffer than ever and there wasn't much for dinner. Still, she felt so happy that she began to sing even while she lit the fire and cooked.

A few days passed and then one afternoon she went out to gather some sticks and it took her rather longer than usual, so by the time she had brought down one bundle the sun was beginning to set and an unusually bright star shone in the sky. She was just starting to go and fetch the other two bundles she had left behind when a party of riders drew up at her gate. There were quite a lot of them and they had evidently come a long journey for there were camels and mules laden with baggage and a number of servants dressed in a strange fashion, not at all like one saw around Bethlehem. The Befana stared at themand she heard them chattering in an unknown tongue. Toward the end of the procession came three men riding together on camels, and when they saw the Befana they stopped and one of them, a very dignified old man with a long white beard, called to her with a foreign accent: "My good woman, would you tell us whether the city yonder be Bethlehem?"

"Yes it is, sir," answered the Befana, "but I doubt if you will find any lodging there; every corner is full to overflowing with folk come for the census. But they do say too how the inn keeper, has made a fortune by charging whatever he liked just for a roof and shelter, being always fond of money. You are late though, if you have come for the census, tor the last day of enrollment is tomorrow."

"We are not come to enroll ourselves," answered the old man, "for we are from a far off land not subject to Caesar. God the Almighty One has put it into our hearts to seek for His Christ, the great King of the Jews, who is now newly born, and He has sent that most bright star to guide us to where we may find and worship Him, and I think we are near to our journey's end. How is it that you have not heard of this?"

The Befana listened in round-eyed amazement, even she could see that these were no ordinary travelers, and there was the star shining as no other star ever shone; it all sounded very wonderful, and almost before she knew what she was saying she had cried out: "Oh sir, couldn't I find that King too?"

"Certainly," replied the old man, "but you must come with us at once for we cannot dally by the way since our star never stops." And he made as though to go on.

"Oh sir, sir, do wait a moment; just a little, while I go and fetch the bundles of wood I have left out on the hill; if I don't go and get them now the woodman will surely steal them and then where should I be! But I will be very quick."

So the Befana hobbled hurriedly to fetch her bundles of sticks, but the old man shook his head and pointing to the star he gave the signal to move on and when the poor old Befana came back the caravan had disappeared though she could still hear the camel bells tinkling in the distance.

"Oh dear, oh dear, " cried the Befana, "whatever shall I do now? They have left me behind, but I suppose I ought not to have thought such fine quality as themselves could wait for an old woman like me. How shall I ever find Christ that King?"

Then quite suddenly the Befana found herself' wringing her hands and crying and not caring for anything, not even for the bundles of wood nor her supper; she only wanted to follow the riders. She began to run along the road and then such an extraordinary thing happened; she found she was running faster and faster, and she didn't feel old any longer, only the city seemed so far away she despaired of ever getting there.

The first person she met was a peasant, and she stopped rather out of breath. "Tell me," she panted, "have you seen a party of riders pass this way? I have missed them and must catch up."

"A party of riders, did you say?" answered the peasant slowly. "Yes, I saw them and they spoke to me and I told them what I could. We don't often see such folk in these parts but their coming must be all part of the strange happenings of these last days."

"What happenings do you mean?" asked the Befana. "My cottage is too far from the village and so I hear little news."

"What, " returned the peasant, "you don't mean to say you have not heard what befell the shepherds out on the hill some twelve nights ago? Why my own cousin was among them, and wonderful it was and fearful too. They saw first one angel who appeared quite close to them and talked with them as man to man, and told them of a newborn Saviour who is to be the king of our own country and of all the world. And the angel told them to hurry over the hill, that hill opposite to your own cottage, to a cave that all the shepherds know of, and there they would find the Child newborn and lying in a manger. And my cousin says that all of a sudden he and the other shepherds felt themselves surrounded by a host of angelic beings, and the sky was filled with light and they heard music and words of peace and praise. All their fear left them, the dogs began to bark, the sheep to bleat, and he and his fellows ran over the hill until they came to the cave. There they found a woman, young and very fair, gazing at a newborn Babe who was lying in a manger, and the cave was filled with light and the sound of heavenly singing.

"At first they wondered that the Child should be found in a cave, but it seems that the innkeeper had refused the man and woman lodging in the inn. My cousin is a changed man from all this and he came to tell us of these marvels, but it is not good to speak of them openly for some men jeer and call us fools, and others might try to do that child some harm. But I have told you because the Old Wise Man, whom I take to be a King, warned me thata woman would follow in their steps and he charged me to entreat you never to give up the search until you, too, have found the Child and His Mother. When you find that Child I think you find the greatest good in the whole world. And now you must go on, and if you are ready to follow the guiding of the Star which is the desire of your own heart, you will surely find him too; but you look to me young, not old, and I think you still have a long way to go." With this he turned away.

The Befana listened to all the peasant had said, and she thought of how she might already have found Him and how she had missed her opportunity by being so anxious about those sticks. What did she care for them now, neither they, nor her house, nor anything mattered at all, only the burning desire of her heart of which the peasant had spoken.

So she went on stopping at many houses to ask if here was the Babe, the King of the Jews, and she could find no house sheltering a man and woman and newborn babe. Even when she asked for news of a caravan of riders, she only heard that they had indeed been seen but were gone on their way again, no one knew where. So very sad and extremely tired, the Befana sank down under an archway and fell asleep, and while she slept she dreamed of the Old Man who had spoken to her, of all the peasant had told her, and in the far distance she seemed to see a child beckoning to her and she woke just as she was starting to run toward him.

So the Befana's long journey began, and at first it took her all over the earth and into every corner of the world; she crossed the great mountain ranges, and deserts and oceans; she forded rivers and passed through forests. And so she saw all the beauty God had created, and met many strange animals, and she found that they too knew of the Baby King. As to men, she soon gave up asking them anything for they only contradicted each other, but she thought that if she went steadily to every child, in the end she was bound to find that one baby for whom she was searching. And remembering the Kings and their long caravan of pack mules laden with gifts, she got an old sack and filled it with every kind of thing that children most enjoy; only I think there must have been something magical about that sack, for though the Befana is still traveling, it never gets too heavy or full for her to carry, and yet she never gets to the bottom or runs short of toys.

Gradually Italy came to be her special country for further north she found Saint Nicholas was busy looking after children's Christmas presents, and he called himself Santa Claus and dressed up like a grandfather snowman for the occasion; and though he was a saint, he was very annoyed when he found the Befana who was reputed to be a witch trespassing on his ground, so he promptly sent her away, promising that when he found the Christ Child he would let her know. However Saint Nicholas had so much to do in his own country that he never got to Italy, so there the Befana had the field all to herself, and every year just after Christmas she goes the rounds of the children from the Alps to Sicily, slipping into their nurseries when they are asleep and she always leaves them a present. Only if they have been naughty, then she leaves a little bit of coal too just to show that she knows all about their misdemeanors.

And isn't it a proof of how stupid men can be, that in spite of the Befana's obvious good will, they should ever have thought her to be a wicked witch and threatened children that she would come and carry them off as though she had been the boogeyman. Now I am glad to say, people have grown wiser and little boys no longer sing rude songs about her, and the earthenware bells and glass trumpets that used to be made to frighten her away have all been forgotten.

But still the Befana prefers that no one shall see her so it is useless for children to pinch themselves to keep awake on the night when she is expected, and of course being a fairy she has every right to be invisible whenever she chooses. Very often too she lets other people give the presents for her but you may be sure that, though she can't be seen, she is there all the time smiling in the corner.

Naturally in all this long time the Befana has gotten to know any number of children for she goes into palaces where the King's little sons and daughters hang out their stockings just like the children of the gardener or the chimney sweep, but I think she has always found the kings of the earth very different from the Baby who was King in Bethlehem. That is why she really feels more at home among the poor, and the poorer the parents, the more presents the Befana leaves for the children, for she feels a mother to them all. And if she meets some who have no homes and no stocking to hang up, why then she can't rest till she sees they have what they want. If the Befana could have her way, every poor child would be taken out of the streets and the towns and set down in a nice clean cottage surrounded with fields of flowers and scurrying rabbits, and every flower would have the magic gift of making the child who picked it perfectly happy. But search as she may among the poorest people of town or country, she has never found anyone as poor as that man and woman in the hillside cave, and never a baby cradled in a manger with an ox and ass to warm him.

Sometimes when that Baby seemed further off than ever, the Befana even thought of looking for Him in the Christmas Cribs which are set up in the churches, and once she managed to get into the great church in Rome where at Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve is shown the cradle of Our Lord. "Now surely at last," thought the Befana, "I shall see the Bambino Gesu;" she prayed so hard and scarcely dared to look up, so much did she long to see a little living Child lying in the cradle, but though the choir sang most sweetly, it was not the song of the angels, and when, at last through the mist of incense and many lights she did look at the altar, she saw the cradle was empty.

And the poor old Befana sank down on the step of a chapel and began to cry. She stayed there quite a long time never noticing the people as they came and went, or the children as they jostled past her in their anxiety to get a good view. When she looked up again the church was empty. She thought she heard the figures laughing, but laughing so kindly that she didn't feel a bit hurt, and the old King beckoned her to approach. Then the man who was nearest to the Mother and Child, he whom the shepherds had seen watching the entrance to the cave, turned toward her. "Poor old Befana," he said, "you have been searching for a very long while but you are just a little mistaken. You want to find the Bambino Gesu as He was that night in Bethlehem when the angels sang in the sky, but that cannot be. The Christ Child cannot now be found in one human child, but in all children; He is in each one to whom you give your gifts for the One dwells in the many, and the searching never ends nor does the finding. Your place is not here, but among all living children." And the laughter ceased, Saint Joseph and the King fell back into their fixed positions and the Befana hurried away quite happily for she remembered how many children were still waiting for her.

Now I think this episode happened to the Befana about two hundred years ago and though I have no documents to prove it is true; things often happen in the lives of fairies that never get into the official biographies. In some Presepi, moreover, of about that time you may even see in one corner among all the other folk, a nice tidy old woman with a tall hat rather like a witch's and a bundle of sticks in her apron, and a chance acquaintance might easily take her for the Befana.

But I am sure that after what Saint Joseph said, the Befana doesn't really want a place among the dolls; she is much too alive and busy for that, and now that she knows the searching and finding go together, she is quite happy.

And so this is a story that can't have any proper ending, for there will be Christmas and children as long as the world lasts, and if dear old Befana deserted us now, we should have to find all our former bells and trumpets, only this time they would be used to call her back.