Memorial Day of the Righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess

The Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the righteous Simeon the God-Receiver and Anna the Prophetess on February 16 The images of these saints are associated with the recognition of the Messiah in the baby Jesus and with the feast of the Presentation of the Lord According to legend, the righteous Simeon lived an unusually long life He was one of the learned men who were commissioned by King Ptolemy of Egypt to translate the Holy Scriptures into Greek Simeon received the book of the prophet Isaiah, where there was a mention of the Virgin who would give birth to the Son of God Simeon understood that a girl who did not have a husband could not bear and give birth to a baby, and therefore doubted the truth of the prophecy The translator decided that there was an error in Isaiah’s words that needed to be corrected immediately But as soon as his hand reached out to the pen to carry out his plan, the appearance of a heavenly angel forced Simeon to stop God's messenger reproached the learned man for his unbelief and punished him with a long life until the appearance of the Messiah Years passed, Simeon grew old, but did not die, and in the year when he was 360 years old, fate brought him to the main temple of Jerusalem Here he met the married couple Joseph and Mary with their firstborn in their arms The ancient elder, seeing the boy, recognized him as the Savior, about whom the prophets wrote hundreds of years ago Taking the child in his arms, Simeon predicted his future glory, after which he blessed the holy parents There, in the Jerusalem temple, an elderly woman, Anna, was present Everyone knew a widow from a noble family, who, since she lost her husband in her young years, did not leave the temple, spending time in prayer and fasting For many years, Hannah prophesied the birth of the Son of God, instilling hope in the hearts of the afflicted The righteous Simeon and Anna are obligatory figures on the icon of the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord Prayers were addressed to the gray-haired old man and the righteous widow for the health and happy fate of the newborns In Rus', the day dedicated to Simeon and Anna was called Pochinki The tradition of repairing household equipment and preparing for the coming spring had roots in the very way of peasant life Each family member had his own obligatory duties and tasks Thus, older family members are engaged in updating horse harnesses and harnesses Pochinki had its own folk signs about the weather: - increasing cold weather could be suggested by smoke or steam spreading over an icy river; - the coming of strong winds and snowstorms was predicted by a cat scratching the floor in the house; - night frost indicated that there would be no thaw during the day; - large snow flakes directly indicated a very rainy coming summer