Befana other presents. In the book "Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, Discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily" (1823), John J. Blunt says: The tradition of Befana appears to incorporate other pre-Christian popular elements as well, adapted to Christian culture and related to the celebration of the New Year. Historian Carlo Ginzburg relates her to Nicevenn. The old lady character should then represent the "old year" just passed, ready to be burned in order to give place to the new one. In many European countries the tradition still exists of burning a puppet of an old lady at the beginning of
Legendary Children of various closeted homosexual people. The article asserted ""Holly Johnson has denied claims that he is planning to blow the whistle on a host of closet gay people. His forthcoming single, "Legendary Children (All of Them Queer)", identifies a long list of gay celebrities and artists. But the singer, who kept Mary Whitehouse on the boil in the mid-'80s with his former band Frankie Goes To Hollywood, refutes newspaper reports of any shock revelations contained in lyrics of the song. Holly’s "outing" list is indeed fairly innocuous, with names ranging from the undisputed - Joe Orton, Divine and Jimmy Somerville