The Legend of Old Befana

The Legend of Old Befana

By Tomie De Paola

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Copyright 1980

pp.28

The Legend of Old Befana

Traditional Literature

          The Legend of Old Befana is a timeless tale of the birth of the Baby King of Bethlehem, who has come to change the world. After reading this book, I was reminded of my Italian grandmother who would always tell me that she could not take down her Christmas decorations until January sixth because that was the day of the feast for Baby Jesus. I can now connect her story to the Italian legend of Old Befana. Old Befana never found the Baby King.  To this day, she still runs across the sky on January sixth and visits all the children leaving them gifts because she never knows which child might be the King. I wonder if my grandmother heard this Italian folktale when she was little and was passing it on to me in her own way.

     I loved the color scheme of magenta, gold, and teal throughout the book and the author’s formatting of the text along the lower section of the page. This a wonderful book to supplement other traditional holiday stories.