6. Norway Has Brooms Hidden
Where: Norway
If you don’t disguise it, the cost is your broom.
If you’re in Norway on Christmas Eve, you have to do something really essential before you go to bed after dinner. To keep witches out of your home, you must conceal any broom.
Twitter/Review Wales/Norway Hides Its Brooms
According to this paganism, on Christmas Eve, wicked witches emerge to steal people’s brooms and ride off into the sunset. These undead witches will wreak havoc and chaos till daybreak if they manage to get their hands on one of your brooms. You cannot provide them any means of transportation in order to foil their nefarious schemes.
7. The Befana
Where: Italy
Price range: $20 to $40 for a custom Befana doll
An ancient tale from Italy tells of La Befana. Similar to Santa Claus, this kind elderly witch brings gifts to kids on Epiphany Eve in Italy. Because La Befana is associated with the end of the year and the broom is one of her primary emblems, she is portrayed as ugly.
La Fantasia ©Shutterstock/Massimo Todaro
La Befana makes space for new things by sweeping away the things of the past with her broom. In Tuscany, burning a La Befana doll represents the end of the year after she has delivered gifts—or coal, if you’re wicked.
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