Roscher includes her among the indigitamenta, the lists of Roman deities maintained by priests to assure that the correct divinity was invoked in public rituals.
[6] The name Strenia was said to be the origin of the word strenae (preserved in French étrennes and Italian strenne), the new-year gifts Romans exchanged as good omens in an extension of the public rite:[7] From almost the beginning of Mars' city the custom of New Year's gifts (strenae) prevailed on account of the precedent of king Tatius who was the first to reckon the holy branches (verbenae) of a fertile tree (arbor felix) in Strenia's grove as the auspicious signs of the new year.
[9] Johannes Lydus says that strenae was a Sabine word for wellbeing or welfare (hygieia, Latin salus).
In the book Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs, Discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily by Rev.
Blunt (John Murray, 1823), the author says: "This Befana appears to be heir at law of a certain heathen goddess called Strenia, who presided over the new-year's gifts, 'Strenae,' from which, indeed, she derived her name.