A little Old Lady lived in a house in the country, far away from the nearest town. One night there was a very bad snowstorm with high winds that blew the snow around. It was soooo cold! During the night she heard somebody knocking at the door. Wondering who would be out on such a stormy night she went to open the door. A gentleman, dressed for travel, was at her door and invited her to join him to go and visit Baby Jesus who was born in a barn. The little Old Lady looked outside at the dark and cold night, then she looked at her warm and comfy bed and answered him: “I’ll go tomorrow!”

A little while later another gentleman knocked at her door and invited her to join him to go and visit Baby Jesus. Once again, shivering in the cold air, she decided to stay home.

Not much later a third gentleman knocked at her door, again to invite her to go and visit Baby Jesus. The little Old Lady, did not know what to do. She would have liked to go but, oh! It was so cold. The snow was making everything white; you could not see the road anymore! Finally she decided to stay home.

In the morning, when the Little Old Lady got up, the storm was finally over. She was all happy. She prepared several small gifts to bring to Baby Jesus and started the long walk to go and visit Him. Unfortunately by the time she reached the old barn where Jesus was born, He was not there any more. She became very upset. She wanted to give Him her gifts and she also wanted to apologize for having been too afraid of the storm to go out in it and visit him earlier. She started looking for Him. From that day onward she traveled all over the world looking for Baby Jesus. No matter how hard she tried she just could not find Him. But whenever she met a baby she handed him or her a gift, in case the baby was Jesus.

When she died and went to Heaven, she asked God to forgive her for not having visited Jesus when He was born and for not having been able to find Him afterward. Then God showed her the faces of all the little children to whom she had given a gift and, to her great surprise, she discovered that each child had the beautiful face of Baby Jesus.

From that day onward, every year, the day of the Epiphany, the Little Old Lady, that everybody called BEFANA, visits the houses where children live. She comes down the chimney….aaannd to the good little children she leaves little gifts and to the more mischievous ones she leaves charcoal and ashes!