According to the folk calendar - Annunciation, Women's holiday

The Annunciation, also popularly called the Indian holiday, is celebrated on April 7 (according to the old style of the calendar - March 25) The Holy Scripture says that on this day the good news came to Mary (the Mother of God) from the Archangel Gabriel about her pregnancy and the conception of her son, Jesus Christ The Annunciation was one of the most important and favorite events among the people In the morning, the peasants went to a prayer service in the temple, lit candles for well-being, and gave alms Childless spouses prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos for the gift of a child In the temples they collected blessed water and carried it home To protect against diseases and evil spirits, they sprinkled it on their homes, barns, livestock and birds, and drank it themselves The owners brought sowing seeds to the temple and asked to consecrate them They believed that this way they would sprout better and give a big harvest The holiday was popularly considered the third day of welcoming spring, so young people called out to it loudly Women baked cookies that resembled larks They were given to the children, and they threw it into the sky and caught it This ritual symbolized the arrival of birds bringing spring to the region In the evening, residents lit large fires and threw outdated things and old mattresses with straw into them This is how they got rid of diseases and problems that had accumulated over the year In order to smoke themselves and their clothes, they danced around the fire and jumped over it The peasants believed that the smoke of the fire would protect them from diseases, the evil eye and damage On Annunciation there was a ban on doing any work They said that even birds stop building nests They didn’t borrow anything, otherwise they could lose their luck and health If a thief managed to steal something, he would be lucky for a year, so the owners locked the house and kept an eye on the property It was forbidden to comb or braid your hair on the holiday Even the birds had to get up early They also did not light the stove for the Annunciation It was cool in the room all day long, the young people went to sleep in the hallway or in the barn, and the old people and children were left to sleep in the hut Since the stove was not heated, food for the whole day was prepared in advance the day before The traditional dish was kulebyaka - a rich pie made from vegetables or fish The Annunciation fell on Easter Lent, but the holiday slightly relaxed the prohibitions on it, and it was allowed to eat fish On this day, residents bought wild birds from catchers and released them This was done so that the free bird would intercede with the Lord for its liberator On the Annunciation, they collected ash from the stove and sprinkled it on the gardens so that the vegetation would not get sick And the old people calcined salt on fire, believing that it would acquire healing properties, and added it to food The weather that was observed at the Annunciation was the same that was expected at Easter A thunderstorm on this day foreshadowed a fine summer and a lot of nuts to collect Clear skies meant a rainy summer season Dampness outside predicted a bountiful mushroom harvest