According to the folk calendar - Kirill the Spring Pointer

In the folk calendar, the date February 27 (February 14, old style) is celebrated as the day of Cyril the Spring Pointer The name of the day is partly taken from a church holiday - the honor of St Cyril, who became one of the first teachers of Christianity among the Slavs Cyril's name in the world was Constantine; together with his brother Methodius, they grew up in a noble family in Greece and received an excellent education Having received the position of presbyter in the temple of Constantinople, Cyril was sent with his brother to the Slavic lands to educate local residents in Christianity He was engaged in translating books from Greek into Slavic, and also taught people to read and write, and developed an alphabet for the Slavs On St Cyril’s Day, there was a tradition of trampling snow in gardens in order to retain the maximum amount of water for the earth when the weather warmed up It was believed that the more snow lies on the ground, the more harvest it will produce An ordinary peasant family had a garden of 10-15 beds, which was enough to grow vegetables and herbs for their own food Women and older children tended vegetable gardens, while men worked in the fields After compacting the snow, they prepared a hot non-alcoholic drink - sbiten To prepare it, the owners mixed two ingredients into one vessel - honey and an infusion of herbs Before the advent of tea, sbiten served as its analogue and had anti-inflammatory and warming properties Women who gave birth on Cyril's day visited midwives who delivered their babies They were thanked for a successful birth by bringing various treats: pies, pancakes, sausages It was not a sin to bring wine or beer to the midwife The spring pointer named Cyril's day for predicting what spring would be like on a given day The abundance of snow was used to predict the future harvest quantity If frost struck on a given day, they expected a hot, dry summer, and if a thaw occurred, they prepared for the coming frosts The chirping of tits was observed before warming