According to the folk calendar - Gabriel Blagovest

April 8 (March 26, old style) according to the folk calendar, Gabriel Blagovest is celebrated And in the Orthodox calendar, the date coincides with the celebration of the Council of the Archangel Gabriel, who appeared at the Annunciation (April 7) to inform the Virgin Mary of her pregnancy with God’s son Gabriel is a holy angel, a messenger of the Almighty God instructed him to convey important predictions to humanity So he descended from heaven to the prophet Daniel to tell about the imminent arrival of the Savior - Jesus Christ Gabriel brought St Anne (the mother of the Virgin Mary) the joyful news of her conception as a girl, the future mother of God He also told the elder saint Zechariah that his death would come only when he personally took the Messiah, the baby Jesus, into his arms And it is not surprising that on the day of veneration of Gabriel, the people called the archangel Blagovest, meaning “Good News” However, the peasants believed that a child born on Gabriel’s day would not be attractive enough in life, rather the opposite It was often joked that such a baby would grow up to be an angry person with physical disabilities Residents prayed to Gabriel for recovery from flu or fever (high temperatures) They also asked Gabriel to protect him from spring colds People turned to him for help if they experienced emotional distress and asked him to bear them more easily The weather was becoming warm, and the night frosts were almost gone The peasants devoted the day to garden work Early crops (radishes, onions, carrots) were planted in the ground, and in the more southern regions seedlings of tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, legumes and melons were planted To protect the future fruits of bushes and trees from insect pests, gardeners sprayed them with a special solution Since Gabriel Blagovest, housewives have been saving yarn until the cold weather This was associated with an increase in the volume of household and garden work If women, trying to cope with all their worries, sat down to yarn, they did it in a hurry As a result, the threads turned out to be of poor quality, often with lumps, and accordingly, products made from them were made defective By the signs of Gabriel Blagovest they judged the future weather The bird cherry blossoms meant that it would be warm and we could start planting potatoes When the willow blossomed, beekeepers removed beehives from the omshanik If the snow on the roof had not completely melted by a given day, it means that cool weather was expected for another month By looking at the more starry areas in the sky, they determined which direction the wind would blow from