According to the folk calendar - Taras Bessonny

Taras Bessonny is celebrated on March 10 (February 25, old style) according to the folk calendar The name of the holiday came from the church date of honoring St Tarasius of Constantinople, a courageous patriarch who lived in the 8th-9th centuries Tarasius was born into a noble family, received a good education and took the position of senator at the imperial court For his strong character, he was honored to be the head of the Church of Constantinople He skillfully managed the affairs of the temple, opposed the iconoclasts, and led an ascetic life Tarasiy donated the income he received to help the poor and sick After his death, the saint’s relics acquired miracle-working properties According to popular belief, Taras Bessonny suffered from fever, sometimes called kumokha or shaking She was considered an evil spirit and was represented as a thin woman living in the thick of the forest with her sisters There were two days in the year, one of them was March 10, when Kumokha could sneak into a human house and infect a sleeping person with a fever in a dream For this reason, residents avoided going to bed before sunset, including not putting their children to bed for a nap In addition, the fever could catch on on the street, which is why residents tried to spend the day without leaving the threshold The reason for believing in it was the transition period from winter to spring, when the human body weakened after prolonged cold weather They said that on the day of Taras Bessonny one should not look into the windows while in the yard, otherwise this would give the fever a chance to penetrate the victim On this day they asked Saint Tarasius for protection from fever When infected, the patient was sent to the site where he became infected with it He should have scattered the barley grains, bowed to four sides and uttered a special spell To expel fever from the body, the patient was suddenly frightened, washed with holy water, wiped with livestock manure, and given tea made from medicinal herbs To rid the village of kumoha and drive it away, the residents started the game “Drema” They stood in a round dance for her, and in the center an impromptu nap was dozing in the pillows He should have suddenly jumped out and grabbed one of the dancers The game ended after the third victim of the slumber, and the peasants believed that this way the disease would leave their village Signs on Taras Bessonny predicted future weather The pointed month was observed with frosty weather If the birds were nesting, warm days were expected Cawing crows predicted a rainy summer Snowfall promised cold and heavy precipitation for 7 days before Easter