The tradition of the Befana stocking hanging in over one in three houses (38%) is back, but
purchases are down 23% compared to last year
.
This is what emerges from a Coldiretti / Ixe 'elaboration on the occasion of a party marked this year by the solidarity between the stocking suspended in the Campagna Amica markets for less fortunate children and the 0 km gourmet lunch for the poorest.
The economic difficulties, the lockdown and the closing of the shops
have weighed on the gifts oriented as always on chocolates, candies and sweet charcoal, but also hazelnuts, walnuts and above all homemade biscuits.
A trend favored by the impossibility of leaving home with the red zone during the holidays with 49% of Italians who spent more time in the kitchen.
Various initiatives have been organized in the farmers' markets to know how to fill the sock according to local traditions, also giving help to families in difficulty;
just think, remembers Coldiretti, that to date 840,000 children under 15 also need help to eat.
In Naples, for example, the 'suspended stocking' arrives
at the Campagna Amica di Fuorigrotta market, where it is possible to buy sweets, citrus fruits and jams strictly at zero km, to be put in the special socks donated to the children of the disadvantaged neighborhoods of the city.
In Puglia, however, the Befana solidarity arrives thanks to the peasant cooks of Campagna Amica who have chosen to donate the meals cooked in the farmhouses to the canteens for the poor in the parishes of Lecce, Bari and to the social canteen in Fasano.
