 Tonight, all across the United States, as well as other parts of the world, children will be going to bed early with the anticipation of Santa Claus's visit. Cookies and milk will be left out as a thank you for the jolly man in red who brings magic to children's hearts during this holiday season. But did you know in Italy, there's another entity that brings children gifts? This is the Christmas witch. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Again, if you would like to help support the channel, there is a link to our Patreon page below. Thank you so much, as always, to Tiffany Monroe for being one of our producers. As always, Tiffany is a Reiki master here in Atlanta, Georgia. She runs courses on Reiki and she also takes private clients. If you would like to get into contact with Tiffany, send her an email. That's also kind of a cool gift for somebody. So if there's somebody in your life and you don't know what to get them for Christmas, contact Tiffany, see what she can do for you because that would be a super cool gift. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce. And today on one of your bonus videos for Christmas Eve, we are gonna be talking about La Bafana. Before we get started, I do have to thank Terri, one of our community members here at Esoteric Atlanta. She recommended La Bafana. I had never heard of this. So this was quite enjoyable for me to research. So thank you so much, Terri. I hope I do the story justice for you. We all know the birth story of the baby Jesus. In fact, we know that the Magi, the three wise men followed the star of Bethlehem to find the newborn baby. This is the epiphany in Christmas tradition. Now, growing up Presbyterian, we did not celebrate the epiphany. In fact, the day after Christmas, my mother was always up in Adam. Let's get the tree out, get the decorations down. I know that's big in England as well, the boxing day where you pack everything up. But for people who celebrate the epiphany, they leave their Christmas tree and their decorations up to celebrate the days it took for the wise man to get to the baby Jesus. Now, the story of La Bafana is big in the country of Italy. Their story goes that on the way to find the baby Jesus, the Magi stopped off at a elderly woman's house to ask for directions. She allowed them to come in and spend the night in her house. And the next day, the wise men were so grateful for her hospitality that they asked her to come along with them to see the newborn king. Well, La Bafana did not go because she, I guess, had a lot of work to do. She was busy. But then after they had departed, she immediately regretted her decision and tried to go and find them. One story goes that she didn't find them. She spent all this time trying to find this baby she couldn't find. Another story goes that she did end up finding them and she brought the baby Jesus a bunch of food and brought her broom and helped the mother Mary keep the stable nice and clean for this baby's new arrival. Well, regardless of whether she found the baby or not the ending is still the same, Jesus blessed La Bafana as the mother of all the children of Italy. Now, La Bafana does all the things that Santa Claus does except for she doesn't come on Christmas Eve. She comes on the eve of the epiphany. La Bafana rides a broom, not a sleigh. She doesn't have reindeer. She wears a black cape and is usually covered in soot from coming down the chimneys to bring all the children, her precious children of Italy, stockings full of candies and gifts. Now the children of Italy leave La Bafana, which means the gift giver, a glass of wine, not milk and cookies, but wine, along with some snacks to snack on when she comes to their house. However, you better be asleep when La Bafana comes because if you're awake and she sees you, she'll smack you with her broom. But once she's put all the candy and all the toys in the children's stocking, she then helps the mother by sweeping out the house. So La Bafana will always be known as the gift-giving Christmas witch. The woman who was anointed by the baby Jesus told that she would be the mother of all the children of Italy. The woman who was kind to the Magi and offered them a place to stay in their journey to find the baby Jesus. Now my niece and nephew are part Italian. My brother-in-law's family is Italian. And so the next time I see my brother-in-law, I am gonna ask them if they've celebrated La Bafana here in Georgia growing up because I do think La Bafana is quite a fun tradition. It doesn't mean that Christmas ends all in one day, but then you have something else to look forward to in the epiphany. So maybe if you're real good, even if you're not Italian, maybe La Bafana will come to visit you as well. So get your wine ready and make sure your house needs to be swept up because those are her jobs when she comes to bring your children their presents. All right, guys, I hope you have a wonderful day. Let me know if you've heard of this tradition or if there's a tradition similar to that from your country as a wasp, a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant. I had never heard of this. So this was super cool. So thank you so much, Terri, for recommending that story. I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas Eve tonight. Go be with your friends and family. Do what you gotta do. Enjoy the holiday. Enjoy the camaraderie. And there will be another video waiting for you tomorrow on Christmas Day. I understand if you don't watch it right away because it's Christmas you should be with your family, but it will be here on Friday for you when you're ready to settle down and have some alone time, some me time to watch a esoteric video. All right, guys, merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Again, thank you to Josh McCabe for writing our opening song. There's a link to the song down below. And thank you to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video out to you guys once again. I hope you have a very merry Christmas and I will talk to you later. Bye.