Editing Bonfire (section)

===Italy===
In [[Northeast Italy]] the celebration {{lang|it|[[Panevin]]}} (in English "bread and wine"), {{lang|it|[[Foghera]]}} and {{lang|it|[[Pignarûl]]}} is held on the evening of [[Epiphany (holiday)|Epiphany]] (5 January). A straw witch dressed with old clothes is placed on a bonfire and burned to ash. The witch symbolizes the past and the direction of the smoke indicates whether the new year is going to be good or bad.

The Northern Italian {{lang|it|La vecchia}} ("the old lady") is a version of the [[wicker man]] bonfire [[effigy]], which is burned once a year as part of town festivals. As depicted in the film {{lang|it|[[Amarcord]]}} by [[Federico Fellini]], it has a more pagan-Christian connotation when it is burned on Mid-[[Lent]] Thursday.

In [[Abbadia San Salvatore]], a village in the south of [[Tuscany]], bonfires called {{lang|it|fiaccole}} up to seven meters high are burned during Christmas Eve to warm up people around them waiting for the midnight, following a millenary tradition.

In Southern Italy, traditionally bonfires are lit in the night between 16 and 17 January, thought to be the darkest and longest night of the year. The celebration is also linked to the cult of [[Anthony the Great|Saint Anthony The Great]].