According to the folk calendar - Ivan - Honeydew

Ivan - Honeydew is celebrated according to the folk calendar on June 7 (May 25, old style) The day was named Ivan on behalf of the holy prophet John the Baptist, since the church on this date honors the third discovery of his relics John was born before the Savior came into the world, and was the son of the priest Zacharias and the pious Elizabeth From his youth he lived as an ascetic, prayed a lot, and kept fasts Then he carried the word of God to people, denounced sinners, instructing them on the righteous path John prophesied the future from the Lord himself and personally baptized Jesus Christ The queen ordered the saint to be beheaded for accusing her of illegal cohabitation After burial, his relics were transferred three times People called Ivan “Honeydew,” because during this period, the temperature difference caused destructive moisture to form on the plants Outwardly, it looked like ordinary water, but it had a sweetish, honey-like taste, as it contained water and sugar from plants Honey dew was especially destructive to bees; honey collected from such moisture could kill an entire bee family in winter Such precipitation also harmed cows and crops in the fields During the same period, moisture similar to honeydew appeared on the foliage, but it was called honeydew It was a product of excretion of insects feeding on plant juices and flower nectar Honeydew was considered more poisonous than dew To protect livestock from destructive dew and honeydew, residents checked the quality of the grass To do this, they hung the fabric outside at night In the morning she became wet, and the owners tasted her If the moisture had a sweet taste, it meant that honeydew had appeared, then the cattle were not grazed until lunchtime, until the grass dried out under the sun's rays On this day they asked St John to protect him from harmful moisture They also prayed to him for relief from headaches and for the well-being of children In the northern regions, Midsummer's day was spent in the fields, sowing late grain crops Cabbages were planted in vegetable gardens, but they were planted with careful rituals, since the head of the cabbage was associated with the head of John the Baptist The girls believed that on this day honey dew could give spiritual and external beauty To do this, they went to the field in the morning and, while no one was looking, undressed until naked, and wiped their bodies with moisture from the plants It was believed that such a ritual would cleanse them of everything bad, nasty and vicious If an abundance of honeydew was noticed on Midsummer's Day, an increased harvest in the fields was expected Wet soil on this day was observed for the harvest of grain crops The dense flowering of rowan promised high yields of oats and flax A late-blooming rowan bush foreshadowed a protracted autumn season