Befana the New Year, called Giubiana in Northern Italy, with clear Celtic origins. Italian anthropologists Claudia and Luigi Manciocco, in their book "Una casa senza porte" ("A House without Doors") trace Befana's origins back to Neolithic beliefs and practices. The team of anthropologists also wrote about Befana as a figure that evolved into a goddess associated with fertility and agriculture. Befana also maintains many similarities with Perchta and her Pre-Christian Alpine traditions. The Befana is celebrated throughout all of Italy, and has become a national icon. In the regions of the Marches, Umbria and Latium, her figure is associated with the
The Boomerang Book of Legendary Tales The Boomerang Book of Legendary Tales The Boomerang Book of Legendary Tales (1957) is an anthology of indigenous myths and legends for children, compiled by Australian author Enid Moodie Heddle, illustrated by Nancy Parker. It won the in 1957. This anthology contains a selection of Australian Aboriginal legends, and myths from New Zealand, Fiji, New Guinea, Tonga, Borneo, Micronesia and the Solomon Islands. In a survey of possible Christmas book gifts for children in "The Age" in 1957, Dennis Dugan noted: "Miss Moodie Heddle has drawn on the work of such writers as Mrs. Langloh Parker, Mervyn Skipper, Roland Robinson,