According to the folk calendar - Theophanes' Day

According to the folk calendar, March 25 (March 12, old style) is Theophanes' Day This holiday was named in honor of St Theophan of Sigrian, revered in the Orthodox Church on this date Theophanes was born into a noble family in the 8th century in Constantinople After the death of his father, Emperor Leo the Isaurian became his guardian, the young man received a good education and took the position of a dignitary at court But Theophanes wanted to serve the Lord, so he became a monk At first the monk copied books, and years later he organized the construction of a monastery in the Sigrian region He was an activist against the iconoclastic heresy, for which his monastery was set on fire, and Theophan was locked in prison, where he died Popularly, on Feofan's Day, peasants gathered on the street in the morning to greet the arrival of spring The time was approaching for the final opening of the earth from snow It was believed that migratory birds brought spring with them, and to attract them to the yard, residents scattered hemp and flax grains This ritual was also carried out to increase the productivity of these crops Hemp and flax were used for more than just textiles They were woven into ropes, their grains were pressed into oil or added to poultry feed Healers prepared medicinal tinctures from flax and hemp Particular attention was paid to horses They believed that if a horse gets sick on Feofan's day, then he is destined to be sick until the end of summer That’s why the owners were more attentive to their four-legged helpers: they fed them more and cleaned their stall To prevent the horse from catching the disease, it was taken to a pond and given water, after first dipping a silver coin into the water Residents could predict the weather using horses If the horse snorted, they were preparing for rain, but lifting his head foreshadowed bad weather A horse lying in the snow meant that warming would soon come Listening to the horse's snoring, they waited for the impending snowfall If melting ice on reservoirs was noticed on Feofan, the year was predicted to have a poor harvest The descending fog meant an abundance of hemp and flax in the fields in summer Fine weather on this day promised June with frequent showers