Legend of the Old Strina
La Vecchia Strina is the protagonist of an ancient fairy tale widespread in the Sicilian hinterland, especially in the heart of the Madonie.
The Vecchia Strina, in the Sicilian tradition, plays the same role that the Befana has in the Italian tradition. It is a wrinkled, toothless and gloomy-looking old lady who lives in hidden places and who in the night between December 31 and January 1 comes to homes to bring gifts and sweets to good children and to punish the most spiteful. bringing them coal. Unlike the befana who moves on board a broom, the Vecchia Strina moves on the back of a mule.
The legend of the Vecchia Strina takes on different connotations from town to town: in Gratteri, the Vecchia Strina is a witch who he lives in the Grattara cave, in the heart of the Madonie and that on the night of December 31st leaves his home riding a donkey, wrapped in a mysterious white veil, to bring sweets and the typical Turtigliuna, buccellati, to the children; in Cefalù the Vecchia Strina leaves the Rocca on the night of December 31st, where she hides throughout the year, to go down to the valley accompanied by her husband, dragging tin cans with her to make as much noise as possible and warn of her arrival. In Isnello the Vecchia Strina, better known as "Nunna Vecchia", is welcomed by children, who wander through the houses of the town in search of sweets and candies, with noisy cowbells. In other countries, in order not to be recognized, the Strina assumes non-human features to be able to easily enter homes: in Corleone it transforms into a bird, in Vicari into an ant.
The tradition of the Vecchia Strina is very ancient and has its roots in the Roman period: its oldest ancestor is the goddess Strenia, goddess of abundance. In fact, it is believed that the term "Strina" derives from the Latin "strēna" which means "gift of good luck". During the Saturnalia, a cycle of festivities in honor of the god Saturn that took place from 17 to 25 December, there was in fact the custom of exchanging auspicious gifts in the name of the goddess Strenia. Furthermore, when Romulus founded Rome, as a symbol of prosperity, the citizens offered him a bundle of green branches, cut from the nearby forest sacred to the goddess Strenia. Rite that was renewed every year and that over time became the custom of exchanging sacred branches of laurel and olive tree on the first day of January as a sign of prosperity.
