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Why this personage is so mysterious and arcane? Why this little old lady, so dear to the children has continued to fascinate them for centuries, and they still await her arrival on the night of her holiday? Some images connected to the figure of the Befana can be revealed in mediterranean archaic agricultural context when the homes became stable and the cult of domestic folklore was established. In Neolithic culture, the houses of villages in Anatolia and other places had neither windows nor doors; the only entrance was through the wide, horizontal roof. The house was entered by a ladder which was then withdrawn in a defensive action. The Befana arrived in the homes through the chimney, an act that in the myths throughout the world is attributed to mythic figures as, for example, the spirits of the Monuntains of Indians in North America, and above all the Nitu Natmate, ancestral spirits of the Papua-indigens, as well as other figures who bring gifts during the Christmas holidays. Sometimes the Befana receives offers of food. In the popular dramatization in Tuscany the Befana is a masked figure who guides the cortege of postulants and receives offers from families who, in kind, receive from her the gift of prosperity. In the mythical tradition, the Befana arrives flying on a broom, or even on a donkey and the magical function of flight itself could have a role of evocation of the spirit. These actions were conceived as a voyage, a flight from a far-away kingdom. Everything seems so far and complicate, fortunately each of us still keep its idea of the little old lady, who is "coming in the night with broken shoes..."
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