According to the folk calendar - Nikita Vodopol (Treat of the waterman)

According to the folk calendar, Nikita Vodopol is celebrated on April 16 (April 3, old style) On the same date, Orthodox believers honor the memory of Saint Nikita the Confessor, after whom the day was named Nikita's life began in the 8th century in a righteous family in Caesarea (in the territory of modern Israel) Having lost his parents, the boy was raised by his grandmother, she instilled in him a love for the Lord As a youth, Nikita became a monk at the Midice monastery and became one of the best monks Years later, he was appointed to the post of abbot (abbot) of the monastery He also defended icons and his flock from the heresy of the iconoclasts, for which he was imprisoned A few years after his release, the abbot died in his monastery Nikitin's day was popularly called Vodopol Due to rapid warming, the ice on the rivers broke and the amount of water increased It often happened that rivers overflowed their banks, and their waters flooded the area In rare years, water reached residential areas, and peasants faced water on the floor That’s why they called the day – Vodopol To predict how much water will flood this year, residents monitored the level of nesting of river birds It was also believed that moles do not dig holes below the river flood, so the height of the upcoming flood was determined from the mole holes Residents believed that on Nikita Vodopola the merman woke up from hibernation He was called the owner of reservoirs, they said that he managed the fish like a cattle breeder with cows Therefore, the fishermen tried to appease the merman They brought him gifts of porridge, chicken entrails, wine drinks, and bread crusts There was a tradition among fishermen to sacrifice an unfit nag to the owner of the rivers She was bought together, fed well the day before, and taken to the ice of the river When a groan was heard from the water, the horse was drowned Then a jug of oil was poured into the river and the merman was ordered to accept the gift This ritual ensured that the aquatic owner, after hibernation, would not take the fish to other places If rain fell on Nikita Vodopol, residents prepared for a bad spring The first rumbles of thunder promised a cool summer Seeing the closed coltsfoot flowers before sunset on a given day foreshadowed a change in the weather Poor fishing was expected if you saw untouched ice on reservoirs