According to the folk calendar - Vlasiev day (Cow holiday)

Vlasiev Day is celebrated among the people on February 24 (the old style date is February 11) The name of the holiday is taken from the Orthodox calendar - the date of honoring the memory of the martyr Blasius of Sebaste, who served as a bishop in the 3rd-4th centuries in the territory of what is now Turkey Vlasiy led a righteous Christian life and helped people believe in the Lord He had the gift of healing sick wild animals through prayer, and they repaid him with obedience Also, Blasius defended hiding Christians from pagan persecutors For his faith in Christ, the saint was given over to be tortured, and then his head was cut off Before the adoption of Christianity, on this day the Slavs celebrated the holiday of the god Veles, the protector of cattle Hence the date is also called the Cow Festival Residents took great care of their livestock Women baked bread from rye, lit it in the church and fed it to livestock They also brought cows to the temple, asked the priest to sprinkle the animal with holy water, and prayed to Saint Blaise for a successful birth of cows and the absence of deaths The owners also carried out protection in the barns: they brought icons into them, read prayers and sprinkled blessed water in the corners Such rituals were performed to ward off evil spirits If there was a mass death of cattle in the village, the women of the entire village gathered together at night and carried out a ritual of expelling cow death They harnessed themselves to the plow and plowed a furrow around the village, knocking on frying pans, making noise and reading incantations On Vlasiev day, bazaars opened where people went to sell and buy livestock It was forbidden to work and slaughter cows, since they were considered the breadwinners of the family But it was allowed to slaughter wild boars, pigs and young bulls, from which they prepared meat dishes and put them on the table This was explained by the fact that human food supplies were coming to an end, and there was also nothing to feed the extra livestock The Great Easter Lent was still approaching, during which it was forbidden to eat meat The Vlasievo frosts were considered the final frosts of the winter; prolonged cold spells rarely occurred If you noticed an abundance of snow on Vlasiev Day, you prepared for a warm May Warmer temperatures during the day meant that the extreme cold had already subsided