Studio design: drawn with AI image tools to the iconography of Folk & Fairy, checked against that tradition's rules and approved by a person. Captions are set in real type, never generated. Made to order in the USA.
The Deity Project supports the keepers of the world's sacred traditions. See our giving
The story behind the line “Sweep the old year out.” It's about La Befana, the kindly old woman of Italian folklore. On the night of 5 January, Epiphany Eve, she flies in on her broom and fills children's stockings. With that same broom she sweeps out the old year, closing the Christmas season.
In Italian folklore, La Befana is a patched, soot-smudged old woman who sweeps the old year out the door. Stories say the Magi once stopped at her house and invited her along to find the Christ Child; she was too busy, then changed her mind and has searched ever since. On the night of 5 January she flies by broom, slips down chimneys and fills hung stockings with sweets, or sugar 'coal' for the mischievous, before the Christmas season ends.
A Next Level 3633 cotton muscle tank, soft combed ring-spun cotton with dropped armholes, printed with the design and its line.
From The Deity Project, a living encyclopedia of the sacred.
