According to the folk calendar - Eustratian Day, Witches' gatherings

On December 26 (December 13, old style), according to the popular calendar, Eustratius Day is celebrated, named in honor of the church day of remembrance of the Great Martyr Eustratius of Sebaste In addition to him, the church honors the memory of the martyrs Eugene, Mardarius, Auxentius and Orestes, who died for their faith in Jesus Christ In the 4th century, many Christians suffered from persecution, so their faith in the Almighty had to be hidden in order to avoid death But some revered the Creator so much that they considered it treason to tell a lie One of these righteous people was Auxentius, a priest of the Arabian Church He was tortured for Christianity, forcing him to convert to paganism Seeing the tolerance of the martyr, the military leader of the city, Sebastius Evstratiy, believed in one God and openly declared this Then Eustratius was tortured and burned alive at the stake, and Auxentius was beheaded The warrior Orestes was captured along with Eustratius They laid him on hot metal, where the martyr accepted death Shocked by what he saw, the Christian Mardarius declared himself a supporter of Christ with great self-denial, for which he was immediately hanged upside down to death The same devoted city dweller Evgeniy was beheaded, having previously cut off his tongue and limbs People called the Eustratian day the Witches' Gatherings, believing that witches met in one place with the goal of capturing the sun and removing it forever This belief was caused by snow blizzards, which were associated with evil spirits and other evil spirits With the onset of darkness, evil spirits flew out on brooms to raise a blizzard and sweep away the heavenly bodies Therefore, women strictly ensured that the street broom used to sweep away snow from clothes was hidden in the house Otherwise, the evil spirits would steal the broom for their dirty deeds On the day of the Witches' gatherings, people were forbidden to swear or use foul language, because upon hearing swearing, the witches could come to the culprit and take him away with them There were rituals to help get rid of witches: housewives would deliberately drop a catch near the stove to prevent witchcraft, or put the stove door on the other side so that the witches would lose their way home But it was not recommended to set off on horses, especially on a white horse The population believed that this would bring big problems to the house or worse, the death of household members But on Eustatius Day one could improve one’s health by touching the great and small bells in the bell tower and calling the name of the sick person Signs helped to know the coming weather Galloping magpies in the snow foreshadowed warmer weather A frosty January was expected if clear sunny skies were seen on the day of Eustratius Based on the next 11 days, the weather was determined for the year ahead - each day was like each month