According to the folk calendar - Avdotya Senognoika

According to the folk calendar, Avdotya Senognoika is celebrated on July 20 (July 7, old style) Avdotya is a holiday named after the church day of honoring the memory of Saint Euphrosyne, who bore the name Evdokia before she was tonsured as a nun Evdokia lived in Rus' in the 14th-15th centuries, was the wife of Prince Vladimir Donskoy Together with her husband, she took care of the inhabitants of her lands, organized the construction of monasteries and churches, and contributed to the painting of holy icons In her old age, she became a nun in a convent she built On July 7, 1407, the soul of the princess left the earthly world Evdokia was popularly called Avdotya, and Senognoika was named for its frequent precipitation during this period They were the reason for the damage to the hay When there was heavy rain, the hay stored for the winter began to rot In order to avoid this, the peasants hurried on dry days to cut the grass, dry it and hide it in stacks under cover Only then the approaching thunderstorms were a joy after the heat With Avdotya, the harvest period began - the time of harvesting grain crops from the fields On this day, the peasants prayed for an easy harvest, for a timely harvest and its successful storage Traditionally, women with sickles reaped the cornfields They walked into the field, singing a common song and carrying with them a sickle wrapped in linen The first cut sheaf with ears of corn was wrapped in linen and carried to the temple after work for illumination The consecrated sheaf was kept in the room near the icons In the afternoon they drove the flies out of the room This sheaf was kept until the Feast of the Intercession (October 14), then it was fed to livestock so that the winter feed would benefit them So that the lower back would not hurt from hard work, the reapers made belts from grain stalks and charmed them to take away pain from the back Women could secretly lie down on a harvested field, ride around it a couple of times and read a spell, asking the earth for energy and strength to collect grain Those who wanted to know the future sometimes guessed in the fields To do this, they threw a sickle to the ground: if its handle touched the ground, then prosperity awaited the fortuneteller However, a tip stuck into the ground promised serious health problems or even death If there was a thunderstorm on Avdotya Senognoika, then summer was expected with frequent rains until the beginning of autumn A whitish sky at lunchtime was observed as a sign of a sudden change in weather Moisture on the bottom of the quinoa leaf foreshadowed imminent rains The evening cries of cranes announced clear days Also, sunny weather was predicted by woodlice, which opened its inflorescences in the morning