BEFANATA
Itinerant ritual quest
5th January 2024
Rufina, Montebonello and Colognole (Florence, IT)
Organised by La Leggera APS, as part of the Creative Europe Tramontana IV project
For 26 years, the group that later founded the ‘La leggera’ association, encouraged by the elderly people they interviewed, revived the tradition of itinerant ritual begging known as ‘Befanata’. Each year, on the evening and night of January 5th, a team of masked ‘befanotti’—including a poet (the only unmasked figure), Pulcinella/devil, an old man and woman with their daughter, a young man engaged to the daughter, a doctor, a parish priest, and musicians—visited houses in the community.
At each home, they performed a short scene: the old men despaired of marrying off their daughter, until one collapsed from sudden illness, evoking pity and securing gifts for the wedding. The ritual concluded with singing and dancing, marking the transition into the new year, Carnival, and the domestic dance season.
