According to the folk calendar - Daria Gryaznaya (on this day treats were left for the brownie)

April 1 (March 19, old style) according to the folk calendar, Daria Gryaznaya is celebrated The first part of the name of the holiday occurs in honor of the church date of veneration of the holy married couple - Daria and Chrysanthus, Christian martyrs of the 3rd century Having become acquainted with the Holy Scriptures, Daria and Chrysanthus accepted Christianity and began to live without fulfilling marital duty They hosted Christians, telling them about God When the couple was reported to the pagan emperor, he ordered Darius to be handed over to a brothel, and Chrysanthus to be thrown into a pit with city sewage The Lord sent a lion to protect Daria from defilers, and cleared the pit with Chrysanthus from dirt Then the pagans tortured the couple and buried them alive in the ground, where the couple died On Daria's Day, the weather was often warm, and melting snow soaked the ground on the roads Walking outside, a lot of dirt stuck to my shoes The floors in the room quickly became dirty from such dirt, a swamp formed in the yard and fields, hence the name of the day - Daria Dirty They believed that on this day bad people were given away by things that were too dirty It was believed that on Daria Gryaznaya the brownie awakens from winter sleep So that he would not do dirty tricks, the peasants cajoled his mood He was treated to milk and sweets, and a pot of porridge was placed near the brownie's stove In colder regions, women bleached fabric to make clothes The canvases were taken out into the yard during freezing conditions and laid out in the snow Under the sun's rays the fabric brightened, and from the frost it became softer There was a tradition on Daria Gryaznaya to amuse friends and household members Residents tried to lighten the mood by telling a joke Unmarried girls joked more than others, believing that in the future this ritual would prevent the husband from lying If it rained on the day of Daria Gryaznaya, they prepared for a wet summer, and based on the sunny weather they predicted a dry summer Cloudiness in the sky at night foreshadowed the following days as warm ones Large streams from melting snow were used to determine the abundance of grass during haymaking The flowering of the willow signaled that it was time to remove the hives with bees from the omshaniks