According to the folk calendar - Katysh Day

According to the folk calendar, Katysh Day is celebrated on March 5 (February 20, old style) Its name is transformed from the church day of honoring the memory of St Leo of Catania, who served as a Sicilian bishop Leo lived in the city of Catania in the 8th century He was kind, merciful, often prayed, helped the poor and wandering For this, the Almighty endowed the saint with the gift of curing serious illnesses During his service as a bishop, Leo managed to expose a sorcerer who had entered into an alliance with the Devil and was harming people with deception and sinful miracles And among the people the holiday was called Katysh for the fun of snow skiing Young people and children rode down the slides, holding competitions They believed that whoever travels further will have more happy days The day was considered the last one when you could go sledding to your heart's content until the next winter, since the snow had already completely melted On Katysh Day, peasants turned to the blacksmith, asking him for some hot coals They went with them to their site and scattered them around the perimeter It was believed that this ritual would help rid the earth of the machinations of evil spirits, and also increase productivity Hot stones were associated with fire, warming the soil for future seedlings At night, residents avoided turning their gaze to the sky so as not to see the falling stars They said that if you see even one shooting star, misfortune will overtake you Such stars were called harbingers of troubles: death could knock on the house or a terrible illness could happen to the beholder If anyone happened to get sick on Katysh, such an illness did not end well The illness lasted longer than usual, developing into other diseases The worst option was death To find out the future of the patient, a piece of bread was placed in his armpit at night Its drying out in the morning meant death The falling snow on Katysh Day foreshadowed poor harvests The wind changing direction promised temporary warming They also prepared for the warmth, noting how birds bathed in the snow, and their circling in the sky was expected for snowfall Rainy weather meant heavy flooding on reservoirs