Arrival of the Befana in Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte

A Befana for the village children

In the festive calendar of Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte, January 6th holds a special place. At dusk, when the chill of the Sannio Apennines descends upon the narrow streets of the historic center, the village children gather at Palazzo Simolo to await the Befana. The appointment is set for 6:30 PM: an evening hour chosen to ensure all families can attend, making the wait even more evocative amidst the lit windows of the palace and the darkness of the surrounding hills.

This is not a large-scale tourist event, and that is precisely its value: the Arrival of the Befana is a community celebration, designed for the little ones of a municipality with just over four hundred inhabitants. The old woman with her shawl and broom distributes sweets and gifts, poses for photos, listens to the children's wishes, and officially closes the Christmas period, as the popular saying goes: "The Epiphany takes all the holidays away."

Palazzo Simolo, the venue for the celebration

The chosen venue for the event is Palazzo Simolo, one of the village's historic buildings, which becomes a focal point for family activities during the winter. The indoor space allows children to be hosted in warmth—a non-secondary detail in a village located at an altitude of about 357 meters, where January evenings are decidedly biting. Gathering in an ancient palace, with its vaulted ceilings and cozy rooms, gives the celebration an intimate, domestic tone, quite different from that of large town square festivals.

The Epiphany in Sannio

The Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte event is part of a dense network of festivities that animate the entire Province of Benevento every January 6th. On the same day, in neighboring towns, there are processions of the Three Wise Men, living nativity scenes, tombola games, Epiphany concerts, and other Befana arrivals, each with its own schedule and meeting point. It is a deeply rooted tradition throughout Sannio, where the Befana is not just a character for children, but the figure who marks the boundary between the holidays and the return to the ordinary life of fields and work.

The Befana, after all, belongs to the most ancient Italian popular culture: a figure linked to agricultural cycles and the renewal of the year, she was later absorbed into the Christian feast of the Epiphany. In the villages of the Campanian hinterland, she has retained her original function as a collective ritual, where adults prepare and children receive.

Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte, the village of the three mountains

Sant'Arcangelo Trimonte is located in the Province of Benevento, in Campania, about a dozen kilometers east of the Sannio capital, in an area of cultivated hills and ancient paths. The village was called Montemalo until 1861: the toponym, of Oscan-Samnite origin, indicated a protected mountain suitable for sheltering flocks. In the Lombard era, a castle was built on a tuff ridge, famous for the size of its underground chambers; towers and sections of walls remain of the ancient fortification, with a stone lion guarding the entrance.

After the earthquake of 1456, the territory was depopulated and repopulated around 1500 by Slavic people fleeing Turkish invasions, who rebuilt the town, built the church of Santa Maria, and created rural hamlets: the current name of the municipality derives from the one dedicated to the Archangels. Another historical curiosity of the territory is the Ponte Latrone, a Roman-era bridge. Administratively, the village belonged to the Province of Avellino until 1978, when it passed to that of Benevento: a dual belonging, Irpinian and Samnite, which is still felt in the dialect and customs.

Why go

• To let children experience an authentic Epiphany, far from shop windows and commercial events.
• To discover a tiny village in the Campanian hinterland at the moment when the community gathers.
• To combine the celebration with a visit to the historic center, the Lombard castle, and the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.
• To include the stop in an Epiphany itinerary in Sannio, which is full of events on the same day.

A tip

As this is a local-scale event, the program is released only a few days in advance through the municipality's channels and the local Sannio press. Those arriving from outside would do well to verify the time and place before setting off: in small towns, appointments may be moved or reorganized based on weather and space availability.