I finally had a chance to sit down a read a couple variations on the Befana story and I found some Russian variations where the witch is referred to as "Babushka" (Russian for grandmother). Also, the Russian variants don't emphasis the character as a witch; she's a peasant woman only. The versions I was able to read were The Story of Befana by Ilse Plume, Babushka by Charles Mikolaycak, and Baboushka: A Christmas Folktale from Russia by Arthur Scholey. I also have Tomie De Paolo's The Legend of Old Befana on hold at the library, so when that comes in, I may edit this post to include information from it.
Befana
The folktale of both Befana and Babushka are similar: A woman, who lives alone, meets the three wise men on their way to visit the Baby Jesus. The woman's home is fanatically clean and in some versions the three wise men stay the night with her. They tell her of Jesus and offer to take her with them to meet him, but she feels she cannot leave her house for whatever reason. (i.e. chores, cleaning, no gift to give, etc.) After they leave she regrets her decision and sets out to find the baby Jesus herself. She may or may not take repaired toys with her that were left over from a child that had died. She travels far and wide and cannot find him, but leave presents or candy for children along her way. The Italian version claims that she also sweeps up the houses that she visits and that children who see her will only get a whack from her broom. Bad children are given coal and onions instead of presents, candy, or apples, oranges, and nuts.
Another version of the story that I found online is much darker. In it, Befana had a child who died; because of this death, she went mad and set out to kidnap the Baby Jesus as her own. When she found him, he blessed her, cured her madness, and made her the mother of all the children of the world. Therefore she leaves presents for them on the Epiphany.
It's a cute story; I can't wait to see what else I pick up from it.
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