The New Year's legend told in the Comasco valleys

A New Year's legend, which is still told in the Comasco valleys (in the province of Como), tells of a miser and a poor man and recalls the tale of Charles Dickens which features the rich and miserly Scrooge. By virtue of this history, in these places, on New Year's Eve the inhabitants used to hang a stick, a sack and a piece of bread on the door of the farmhouses. We will discover the reason by reading the following story, a fairy tale that invites adults and children to reflect.

Story of a miser and a beggar

New Year's legend has it that, a long time ago, on a cold New Year's Eve, while everyone was celebrating in their homes, the miser Tobia was counting his money in a corner of his home, when he heard a knock on the door. The man, somewhat annoyed, only after covering the ducats with a cloth, went to open the door.

Immediately, he was hit by a freezing gust of wind. Then, he saw, in front of him, in the midst of the snowstorm, a poor man who was barely standing and, despite the cold, was not even wearing a cloak or anything similar. The poor man presented himself as a lost traveller, looking for shelter, and asked for charity to be able to sleep in a barn. Tobias, without showing the slightest sign of pity, refused to host him on the grounds that he did not allow anyone to sleep in his barn. Furthermore, without hesitation, he ordered him to leave.

The poor man then asked for at least a crust of bread, a sack or at least a rag with which he could cover himself, or a stick to lean on, but received another abrupt refusal. Tobias, without thinking twice, closed the door of the house in the beggar's face and returned to his money. But a bitter surprise awaited him: under the cloth, instead of his beloved ducats, he found only a handful of dry leaves. His precious money had suddenly disappeared like snow in the sun.

His desperation was so great that it drove him to madness. Tobias ended his days wandering through his native valleys and telling everyone about his misfortune. Since then, on New Year's Eve, the locals got into the habit of hanging a sack, a stick and a piece of bread on their doorstep.

(Photo: Pixabay)