According to the folk calendar - Sylvester Day (Chicken Festival)

January 15 (January 2, old style) is Sylvester Day according to the folk calendar The name of the day comes from the church date of veneration of St Sylvester I, Pope of Rome in the 4th century According to legend, the saint dedicated his entire life to God, converting pagans to Christianity and helping persecuted Christians At the age of 30 he became a deacon, and then a presbyter of the Roman Church Sylvester received the rank of Pope after the death of the previous bishop Among the Sylvester people, the day was called the Chicken Holiday, and the owners took care of the birds We cleaned the chicken coop, changed the straw in the nests, repaired the perches, and fumigated the chicken coop with juniper A talisman was hung in a prominent place in the chicken coop - a dark stone with a hole in the center If a stone was not found, they used a jug neck or a chicken skull with a hole Such a talisman protected birds from the evil eye and diseases, and drove away kikimoras that strangled chickens There was a legend among the people, according to which a black seven-year-old rooster laid an egg in the manure just on Sylvester's Day It was hatched by a toad and on June 4 a Basilisk hatched from the egg To avoid this, the peasants did not keep black roosters for long On Sylvester's day the frost and snowstorm usually intensified It was believed that the cold drove the twelve daughters of Herod out of hell Invisible to the eye, they stood on the street at the front door, waiting for a weak person, and then infected him with fever To prevent fever in the family, healers performed a protective ritual - they charmed the water, adding Thursday salt, Chernobyl earth and ashes from seven furnaces The resulting composition was used to wipe the door jambs In general, Silvestrov's day was spent in games and fun The elders communicated at a feast, for which it was forbidden to prepare poultry dishes, so as not to cause trouble The children sang carols and received gingerbread cookies in the shape of a cockerel as a gift, and the girls told fortunes To find out the rainiest months of the year, 12 onions were peeled at night, marked with the names of the months and sprinkled with salt on top - which onions become wet in the morning, those will rain If on Sylvester's day the roosters crowed earlier and the geese trampled in the snow, people expected warmer weather A magpie hiding near the roof meant impending snowfall If the chickens went to bed early, severe frosts awaited them A month with sharp edges indicated the arrival of windy weather, and a month with soft edges indicated cold