According to the folk calendar - Arina Rassadnitsa, Arina Kapustnitsa

On May 18 (old style - May 5) according to the folk calendar, the day of Arina Kapustnitsa is celebrated, also called Arina Rassadnitsa It is on this date according to the church calendar that the memory of St Irene of Macedon, the first great martyr among women who lived in the 1st century, is honored The girl lived in Macedonia, was the daughter of the pagan ruler Licinius, from her parents she bore the name Penelope, she was beautiful and smart From her teacher, the girl learned about God and accepted Christianity under the name Irina, and then managed to convert both her parents and thousands of other idolaters to Christianity When Zedekiah came to power, he began persecuting Christians He ordered Irina to be tortured, but the torture did not harm the girl - as if the saint was protected by God’s power, and she was released Irina lived to old age, preaching faith in Christ and healing the sick through prayer Among the people, Saint Irina was renamed Arina She was called the Cabbage Plant and the Rassadnitsa for the same thing as Mavra the Rassadnitsa (May 16) - for planting cabbage seedlings On this day, women secretly planted it in the ground at dawn, so that no one would jinx the harvest Cucumbers were planted along with cabbage When planting seedlings, they read spells for a good harvest, so that the head of cabbage would grow large, tasty, white and not tough The woman covered the first seedling with a pot and covered it with a white cloth, saying that the entire harvest would be like it To ward off evil spirits, some nettle seeds were sown around the cabbage beds On this day, women gardeners were forbidden to eat bread, believing that otherwise poultry would eat the young cabbage Cabbage was considered a valuable garden vegetable for the people, since it could be stored in cellars for a long time, until spring Soups, dumplings, cabbage rolls, pies and rolls were prepared from it; it was used fresh in salads Cabbage leaves also helped get rid of skin inflammation, ulcers, strained veins, and kidney diseases On Arina Kapustnitsa, peasants were busy burning old dry grass This helped get rid of weeds before planting later garden crops It was also believed that the ashes from scorched grass served as a kind of protection against fungal diseases However, sometimes, if done incorrectly, burning could cause harm – fires If on Arina Kapustnitsa, when watering the garden, they noticed that the water was quickly passing into the soil, the peasants expected a dry summer; if the water took a long time to drain, on the contrary, a rainy one Observing the cessation of bird chirping, we prepared for a thunderstorm Seeing geese preening their feathers in the water, residents expected warmer weather, but preening them on land foreshadowed a cold snap