According to the folk calendar - Nastasya's Day

January 4 (December 22, old style) is celebrated as Nastasya’s Day according to the folk calendar Its origins come from a church holiday in honor of Saint Anastasia, called the Pattern Maker for her help to Christian prisoners Anastasia was born into a senator's family in the 3rd century The father was a pagan, the mother a secret Christian In secret from her husband, the mother gave her daughter to study the Holy Scriptures with Saint Chrysogonus Having matured, the girl began helping Christian prisoners persecuted by pagans After the death of her parents and husband, Anastasia spent her inheritance on food, clothing and medicine for prisoners, came to them in prison and personally provided all possible assistance The ruler Diocletian ordered the Christian woman to be persuaded to paganism or subjected to torture But Anastasia chose the second - she was starved, drowned, nothing could replace her devotion to the Lord As a result, the girl was stretched over a fire between four trees, where she died On Nastasya’s Day, pregnant women prayed for a safe delivery, for which the people called the saint the Pattern Maker Anastasia was considered the patroness of expectant mothers On this day, they ate Lenten porridge, believing that such a ritual would preserve pregnancy and give strength to give birth to a healthy child Pregnant women also spent the day embroidering patterns on the birth towel - a kind of amulet The most common pattern embroidered was one that signified life and fertility Mothers taught their daughters embroidery for the future On Nastasya's day there was a belief to refrain from beating domestic animals so as not to cripple your legs Girls were not allowed to have their ears pierced to avoid long healing You shouldn’t move around barefoot, as poverty will come They also avoided knitting mittens so that their household would not have their hands tied and put in prison Signs on Nastasya's day helped to find out the coming weather Clouds moving in the opposite direction from the wind meant an approaching snowstorm The abundance of icicles on the roof foreshadowed a good harvest Low water in the reservoir led to a dry summer and poor fishing Based on Nastasya's day, similar weather was determined for October