https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/12/09/9th-december-babushka/ In the midst of life I woke to find myself living in an old house beside Brick Lane in the East End of London Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:05:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/12/09/9th-december-babushka/#comment-33499 Wed, 21 Dec 2011 09:05:01 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=50310#comment-33499 Andrea, good advice!
I grew up with this story, as did many of my generation, but it seems the story is unknown in Russia. Unusual that, and one that even eight decades (or so) of Communist censorship would explain convincingly. So I have looked deeper, and here the story takes an odd twist.
It transpires that the tale is not Russian at all, but the Italian tradition of La Buffana, an old hag or witch who, like Babushka in this story, misses the chance to see the infant Christ child and so spends all eternity making amends. The story was translated into Russian at the end of the 19th Century, as part of an anthology of Christmas tales. This self same publication was then picked up by an English lady a few decades later who took the tale to be Russian and translated it into English.
So next year I , like Babushka/ Buffana, shall make amends and depict the original kind-hearted Italian strega!

]]> https://spitalfieldslife.com/2011/12/09/9th-december-babushka/#comment-32436 Fri, 09 Dec 2011 17:58:59 +0000 http://spitalfieldslife.com/?p=50310#comment-32436 Another moral could be: keep your place clean because you never know who might drop by!

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