I must confess that it would never have crossed my mind to actually start doing anything related to Christmas already mid November before moving to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the most important celebration during this part of the year is Sinterklaas, not Christmas. And it starts with his arrival mid November, and goes on with his visits all over the country during the following weeks, until Pakjesavond on December the 5th.

In our family we decided to adopt this tradition as our aim is to integrate and embrace the culture of our host country. But we also wanted to maintain some of the traditions we liked from our childhood. So we ended up practically celebrating this season from mid November until the 6th of January. – It’s a long time…

So, every year we are excited upon Sinterklaas’ arrival, and our children put their shoes near the chimney, hoping that some of the (Zwarte) Pieten will fill them over night with pepernoten or other delicacies, sometimes small cadautjes. – Even though they know about this tradition, our children love to keep up the magic and celebrate it with the same enthusiasm.

As we also want to keep some of the traditions my husband and I know and cherish from our childhood, we like to put up the Adventskalender. Each child usually gets one and opens a door every day starting from December 1rst.

40px|border|Flag Deutsch: Adventszeit in Luzern: Adventskalender bei der Reussbrücke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These two traditions are quite similar, both, the shoes and the advent calendar will give our children a surprise in the morning. – Will the shoe be filled? What am I going to receive or read (if it’s not a calendar filled with toys, sweets etc.) in my calendar? – If you combine them both, your children will get two “surprises” per day until Pakjesavond, and then carry on with the Advents calendar until Christmas.

We will also celebrate Christmas on the 24th (and 25th-26th December), and, of course, La Befana or Heilige Dreikönige on the 6th of January.

The historical center of Schöckingen in Baden-Württemberg in Germany, with christmas illuminations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Usually our children receive the bigger presents at Sinterklaas and this for very obvious reasons: we usually meet with our families at Christmas, which involves a lot of travelling, so we soon decided not to overload our car for those days and decided to offer our children the bigger presents at Sinterklaas. This give them the opportunity to already play with them before Christmas. At Christmas then, they receive books, clothes or items they “need” – which makes much more sense to me and my husband, and is more the way I celebrated Christmas as a child.

As for the celebration of Sinterklaas, whose German/Swiss/Austrian equivalent Sankt Nikolaus is celebrated on the 6th, we decided to shift the celebration to the 5th December, because this is the Pakjesavond celebrated here in the Netherlands.

Then we celebrate Christmas on the 24th and 25th with family, with a great combination of different traditional meals, depending on where and with whom we’re celebrating.

In January another celebration will close this festive season on the 6th of January. In Italy we would celebrate La Befana. When I was a child, this was the day when my fellow Italian friends would receive presents; Christmas was the day family would gather together and share festuous meals. The 6th of January was the day children would simmer with excitement – and a bit of fear as la Befana would bring choal to those children who were not so kind… This makes this celebration very similar to Sankt Nikolaus/Sinterklaas in Germany, whose partner, the Knecht Ruprecht or Schmutzli in Switzerland, would give them a rod (and sometimes “hit” them… ) if they weren’t behaving well the weeks before…

On the 6th of January we now celebrate the Heilige Drei Könige, the Three Wise Men. We share a cake, the typical Dreikönigskuchen or Gallette des Rois – like our Belgian and French neighbours, but I still have my little Befana that hovers over the table that day…

What are the traditions you’re maintaining or adopting in your family?

Three Befane with their brooms. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Italy today they celebrate la Befana. It is the Festa dell’Epifania: Epifania (Epiphany in English) is a Latin word with Greek origins and means either the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6) or “manifestation (of the divinity).”

There are several legends about the Befana.

1) Following one christian legend, the Befana was approached by the biblical magi (Three Wise Men or Three Kings) a few days before the birth of Jesus. They came to her asking where the Son of God was, as they had seen his star in the sky. La Befana didn’t know, but gave them shelter for the night. When the three magi invited her to join them on the journey to find the baby Jesus, she declined, saying that she was too busy with her housework. Later, she had a change of heart, and tried to search out the astrologers and Jesus. That night she was not able to find them, so to this day, La Befana is searching for the little baby. – She leaves all the good children toys and candy (“caramelle”) or fruit, while the bad children get coal (“carbone”), onions or garlic.

2) There is also another Christian legend: La Befana had a child whom she greatly loved. This child died and her grief turned her mad. When she heard that Jesus was born, she set out to look for him. Eventually she managed to meet Jesus and gave him gifts to make him happy. According to this legend, Jesus was so delighted, that he gave La Befana a gift in return: she would be the mother of every child in Italy.

3) A popular tradition tells that the Befana doesn’t want to be seen. If you try to see her, she’ll give you a thump from her broomstick. Parents tell this to their children in order to make them stay in bed while they distribute candy (or coal!) and sweep the florr on Epiphany Eve.

4) Another Christian legend tells that the Befana starts at the time of the birth of baby Jesus. La Befana spends her days cleaning and sweeping (she always has a broom stick!). When the magi (Three Wise Men) asked her to help them to find baby Jesus, she sent them away because she was too busy cleaning (!). But then she sees a bright light in the sky and thinks this is the way to baby Jesus. She packed some baked goods and gifts for baby Jesus in her bag and took her broom to help the new mother clean and began her search for baby Jesus. She never found baby Jesus. For this reason, she is still searching for him and on the eve of the Epiphany, Befana comes to a house where there is a child and leaves a gift. Although she has been unsuccessful in her search, she still leaves gifts for good young children because the Christ Child can be found in all children.

There are several versions of the Befana rhyme, this is the one they use to tell in Rome:

La Befana vien di notte
Con le scarpe tutte rotte
Col vestito alla romana
Viva, Viva La Befana!

The English translation is:

The Befana comes by night
With her shoes all tattered and torn
She comes dressed in the Roman way
Long life to the Befana!

This is one the italian poet Giovanni Pascoli (see the full version here):

Viene, viene la Befana
Vien dai monti a notte fonda
Come è stanca! La circonda
Neve e gelo e tramontana!
Viene, viene la Befana

The English translation is:

Here comes, here comes the Befana
She comes from the mountains in the deep of the night
Look how tired she is! All wrapped up
In snow and frost and the north wind!
Here comes, here comes the Befana!

 

• La Befana (blueskyitaly.wordpress.com)
• Sinterklaas, Nikolaus, Befana or Heilige Drei Könige? (expatsincebirth.com)
• The Ride of the Witch in the Italian Language (becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com)

Related articles

• Sinterklaas, Nikolaus, Befana or Heilige Drei Könige? (expatsincebirth.com)
• The Ride of the Witch in the Italian Language (becomingitalianwordbyword.typepad.com)

During this time of the year, there are a few traditions that seem very different, but are quite similar.

Sinterklaas or Nikolaus?

Today, on the 5th of December, in the Netherlands people celebrate Sinterklaas and Pakjesavond, whereas in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and some other countries, Nikolaus, Sankt Niklas or Samichlaus arrives on the 6th of December. He usually has only one helper: Knecht Ruprecht, Schmuntzli, Krampus, Bullerkas, Beelzebub, Hans Trapp, Housecker, Père Fouettard, Rupelz etc.., but in the Netherlands he has lots of Zwarte Pieten.

Well, if you live here in the Netherlands, you can  choose either to celebrate in the Dutch way, adapting to the social context or in the German, Swiss, Hungarian etc. way. We decided to adopt the Dutch celebration. As we never happened to be in Switzerland or Germany during these days of the year, our children never questioned the difference between these traditions. They accept it like the differences in classical tales (I will talk about this in an other article).

When I was a kid, I used to live in Italy and our italian neighbours didn’t celebrate San Nicola. As far as I know, only in the region South Tyrol, San Nicola is celebrated (San Nicola is also the patron saint of the city of Bari, but they don’t celebrate him like in Germany and South Tyrol). I remember that when I was a kid, my italian friends were very keen to learn about our german festivity. I was very proud of celebrating Nikolaus, but I also liked their festivity: the Befana.

La Befana or Heilige Drei Könige?

The celebration of La Befana seems very similar to Sinterklaas and Nikolaus, and takes place on the 6th of January.

La Befana is an old woman – often represented as a witch – who flies on her broom stick every year on the night between the 5th and 6th of January, the Epiphany day, to bring presents to children. She carries these presents in a big bag on her back. Usually she brings lots of sweets, and she will fill the stockings kids have left on the chimney. – Very similar to the Zwarte Pieten in the Netherlands, the sweets come down the chimney…

Well behaved children will find sweets and chocolates in their stocking on the day of the Epiphany. Those who didn’t behave will also get a few lumps of coal. Nowadays this would be sweets in the shape of coal.

Everyone loves La Befana in Italy, she is a lovely old woman with a long crooked nose, broken shoes and a patched dress.

In Germany, Switzerland etc. on the 6th of January they celebrate the Three Wise Men or Three Kings (Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar). In Spain, these three Wise Men will receive letters from children and bring them gifts on the night before Epiphany. In Spain, each one of the three Magi represents one different continent: Europe (Melchior), Asia (Caspar) and Africa (Balthasar). These Magi come from the Orient on their camels to visit the houses of all the children. Pretty much like Sinterklaas on his horse or Sankt Nikolaus… If the children in the Netherlands prepare a carrot and some hay for Amerigo, the horse of Sinterklaas, in Spain it is traditional to prepare food and drink for the camels (apparently this is the only time in the year they can eat).

In Spain and Portugal people eat a cake (Roscón de Reyes) to celebrate. It’s ring-shaped, most commonly bought, not baked, and it contains a small figurine of the baby Jesus (or another surprise depending on the region) and an actual dry broad bean.  The one who gets the figurine is crowned, but whoever gets the bean has to pay the value of the cake to the person who originally bought it.

In France, Belgium and Switzerland the cake (galette du roi, Dreikönigskuchen) contains a small figure of the baby Jesus or a small king, is shared within the family. Whoever gets the bean is crowned king for the remainder of the holiday and wears a cardboard crown purchased with the cake. The practice is known as tirer les Rois (Drawing the Kings).

In our family here in the Netherlands, we decided to celebrate Sinterklaas on the 5th of December along with all our Dutch friends, and Heilige Drei Könige like in Germany, Switzerland etc. with a little old woman arriving on her broom stick on the 6th of January…

Did you also choose to celebrate festivity in another way than you used to in your childhood? Or did you maybe choose to celebrate one festivity instead of another?

I would be very interested in knowing what made you take this decision and how you think and feel about it.