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 of people who would later found the association ‘La leggera’, following the express invitation and encouragement of the elderly people interviewed, revived the tradition of ritual itinerant begging known as ‘Befanata’. On the evening and night of 5 January each year, a team of masked ‘befanotti’ consisting of the poet (the only one not wearing a mask), Pulcinella/devil, the old man and old woman with their daughter, a young man engaged to the daughter of the two elderly people, the doctor, the priest and the musicians, visits the houses of the community.
In each house, there is a short scene in which the old couple despair of being able to marry off their daughter until one of them falls to the ground due to a sudden illness and, arousing the pity of those present, obtains the gifts necessary to bring about the much-desired marriage. It all ends with ritual songs and dances. The tradition is linked to the passing of the year and marks the beginning of the Carnival period and the season of domestic dances.