Buon Natale

Buon natale means Merry Christmas in Italian and today I'm going to teach you how to celebrate if you're going to Italy this Christmas.

It's an exiting time for children as they get early presents as well! If they are in one of the many families who celebrate St Nicholas day, then on the 6th, if they've been good, then they will recieve some yummy fruits, nuts and sweets from St Nicholas. Whereas if they've been naughty, they will recieve a sweet also, but a black suger one that looks like coal. For children, it is fun to write a letter to St Nicholas, asking him for gifts as well. To prepare for the coming of St Nicholas, children would hang their stockings above the fire, or, if they couldn't afford a stocking, or didn't know were to buy one, or just didn't want to, they would put a plate on the dinner table for him to put their treats on instead. Sometimes, St Nicholas comes and visits the houses of lucky children. If that were to happen to you, then you would have to either recite a poem or sing a Christmas carol to him. Gifts are exchanged in the Italian Christmas, only on the 6th of December which is the day of the Epiphany, then, La Befana would come and give the children their proper gifts, not just food! The Italian name for St Nicholas is San Nicolo.

In Natale (Italian Christmas) houses are decorated and trees are put up, just like in England, there is even a special nativity called presepe which the Italian people, like us, are quite fond of and count it as one of their main, Natale traditions (Italian Christmas traditions).

La Befana used to be an old witch that only cared about sweeping. In the morning she would make a new broom and by the end of the day she would of worn it out, by sweeping and sweeping and sweeping. All day long she would sweep, from early in the morning to late at night

La Befana used to be an old witch that only cared about sweeping. In the morning she would make a new broom and by the end of the day she would've worn it out, by sweeping and sweeping and sweeping. All daylong she would sweep, from early in the morning to late at night. From the open floors and nooks and crannys of her house, to the wide paving stones of her garden porch. Until one day, when La Befana was sweeping early in the morning, and there was a loud knock at the door. As she went to open it, she thought how rude it was, interupting her work like this! She opened it a crack, then flung it wide open, for there were three kings, carrying gifts of gold frankinsense and myrr. They asked her were bethlhem was but she didn't know! So she could only shake her head, when the kings were nearly out of the doorway, they asked her if she would like to come with her. La Befana shook her head, But when she went back to her days sweeping, it didn't seem so important to her, so the next day, she set off to try and catch up to the three kings. I have to tell you, though, she never did. She gave presents to all the babys that she met and turned into a very good person, but she never caught up with the three great kings searching for bethlehem.