📚 SALCE AT HEART
Every January, for more than fifty years, the Alpini of Salce have brought the Befana — the kindly old witch of Italian Epiphany — to the village children. The volumes of the Col Maòr tell how it began, and who wore her clothes for decades.
A chimney too small
The children were quite sure: the Befana would come down the chimney of the nursery school, “because Narciso’s was too small”. It was January 1969, and for the first time the Alpini of Salce were bringing the Befana to the members’ children.
The idea had been announced by the Col Maòr in December 1968: the Board had decided “to organise, for the first time, the Alpine Befana” for children up to the fifth year of primary school, with help from the Motta company and the Section. The February issue tells the story of the day with real warmth. At 1.30 pm the donkey and cart were ready, and the Befana was “the good Pia, unrecognisable”. At 2.30 pm the little caravan set off for the “Da Narciso” bar, the Group’s headquarters, where the parcels were handed out; then came hot chocolate and, as a surprise, songs by the Coro Minimo Bellunese. The newsletter signed off with thanks “to Pia, perfect ‘honorary Befana’ of the Group!”.
Twenty-five stockings and a new Befana
A year later the Col Maòr was already speaking of “the tradition of the Alpine Befana, established last year”. If it happened again in 1970, it was thanks to the insistence of “Nani Tibolla”: the donkey once more, the cart once more, “on which the twenty-five stockings swung”, and Pia once more, this time in Belluno costume.
In January 1971 the newsletter announced something new: “For 1971 we also had, in flesh and blood, the new ‘Befana’. Thank you, Giulia, for your ‘performance'”. That Giulia was Giulia Carlin. In the years that followed the Col Maòr would name her in full, and from then on she was, for everyone, the Alpini’s Befana.
From donkey cart to hang-glider
Ten years on, the room above the bar was no longer big enough. In February 1981 the Col Maòr reported that for the first time the whole celebration had been held at the “Luigi Aldo Carli” nursery school: sixty presents for the members’ children, sixty stockings for the others, and Toni Tamburlin’s cart with a huge stocking and the “(live) befana”, Giulia Carlin.
In 1985 the temperature fell below minus ten: the Befana arrived frozen, and the stockings now numbered 120.
Then, in January 1991, the Befana came down from the sky. A hang-glider flown by Group member Pierantonio Sponga brought down “dear Giulietta, by now the befana ‘ad honorem'”. On the ground she was awaited by Toni Tamburlin‘s papier-mâché mule and cannon, firing confetti, by the Mini Cantori of Bes and by the parish choir led by Maria Ribul. Taking the photographs was Bepi Zanfron, remembered in the 60th Anniversary Book as a frequent presence at the Group’s events.
“Ciao Giulia…”
In December 2017 the Col Maòr celebrated “50 years of Alpine Befanas”, honouring Toni Tamburlin and the ladies who had played the Befana: “the doyenne Giulia Carlin (Befana no fewer than 47 times), Pia Marcolina and Marica Bortot”. A few months later, on 12 June 2018, Giulia Carlin died after a short illness. The newsletter gave her its cover, with “Ciao Giulia…”, and recalled that she had played the Befana “46 times out of 50 editions”, including that landing from the sky in 1991.
The celebration has not stopped. The 60th Anniversary Book calls her “the New Befana”, and every January the Alpini of Salce bring her back to the village children.
When the sources do not agree
- The first year. The 60th Anniversary Book says “since 1968”: the celebration was decided in 1968, but the first edition was held in January 1969.
- How many times Giulia? “47 times” in 2017, “46 times out of 50 editions” in 2018, “for over 50 years” in the 60th Anniversary Book. According to the papers, Giulia began in 1971: the first two Befanas were played by Pia.
- The 1991 flight. In 1991 the newsletter speaks of a hang-glider flown by Pierantonio Sponga, in 2018 of a motor glider of Toni Sponga. It may be the same episode remembered in two ways.
- Pia. That the “good Pia” of 1969 and 1970 is Pia Marcolina, honoured in 2017, is likely but not yet verified.
Help us remember
- Who keeps photographs of the first Befanas, at the “Da Narciso” bar and with the donkey?
- Who remembers the 1991 flight and can help us clarify who was at the controls?
Write to us from the Contact page: every contribution will be checked and, if confirmed, will enter MEMORIA.
