According to the folk calendar - Nikon's day

December 24 (December 11, old style) is Nikon's Day according to the folk calendar The origin of his day comes from the Orthodox holiday of the veneration of St Nikon of the Pechersk, who served as abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Monastery in the 11th century When Nikon became a disciple of St Anthony, he was engaged in tonsure of newly arrived monks at the Kiev Pechersk Lavra For tonsuring the subjects of Prince Izyaslav, Ephraim and Varlaam, the monk received a reprimand from the prince, but refused to persuade the newly made monks to return to their former life This incident forced Nikon to leave the monastery and settle on the island of Tmutarakan, where the monk subsequently created a monastery named after the Most Holy Theotokos A few years later, Nikon returned to the position of chief assistant to Abbot Theodosius He kept chronicles and created book bindings from them, and replaced the abbot in his absence After the overthrow of Izyaslav from Kyiv by Prince Svyatoslav, Nikon went to his monastery After a while, he was taken back by the Monk Stefan, after whose death Nikon took the position of abbot of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra On the day of Nikon, the population glorified the sun There was a tradition of lighting huge fires to ward off evil spirits wandering in the darkness People believed that until the sun rose into the sky, evil spirits flew through the streets and made snow storms In every house, lamps were lit in front of the icons, and people prayed that the sun would come quickly and disperse the evil spirits An ax was placed at the threshold with its sharp edge up so that evil spirits would not dare to sneak into the house But sometimes people took advantage of the windy weather on Nikon's day for conspiracies The young men were engaged in casting a love spell on girls, going out into the black smoke of only a melted stove, reading the spell and pronouncing the name of their beloved In addition, on Nikonov's day they made a wish, broke off a branch from an apple tree and put it in water, if it bloomed for Christmas, the wish would come true The coming weather was determined by the sun's rays: if they were directed towards the ground, a blizzard was expected, rays to the sides foreshadowed severe frosts Cold weather was also determined if several squirrels were seen in one hollow Crows circling in the sky for a long time were observed before the snowstorm