St. Andrew's Day among Western Christians (Catholics)

St Andrew's Day, celebrated on November 30, is one of the first pre-Christmas holidays On this day, all Catholic people honor the Apostle Andrew, a disciple of Jesus Christ There is not much information about Andrew on the pages of the Bible It is known that he was the brother of the Apostle Peter Jesus called them to follow him together while the brothers were busy fishing Hearing the calling words of Christ, Petro and Andrei immediately left their nets and followed the Savior Previously, Andrei was a follower of John the Baptist, and it was the first teacher who pointed him to Jesus and told him that the Savior had come to the world Andrew immediately recognized Jesus as the Messiah who would save humanity from their sins Because of this, Apostle Andrew is called the First-Called, he was the first to be called by Jesus to be a follower of the Son of God, and he was the first to recognize him as the Savior It was Andrew, when there was nothing to feed the people who had gathered to listen to the sermons, who pointed out to Jesus a boy who had two fish and five barley loaves The Savior, taking this little and multiplying it, fed 5 thousand people Andrew was also one of the four disciples to whom Christ told about the end of the world As we know from history, after the death of the Teacher, the apostles cast lots to whom to preach in which region Andrey fell to Scythia Proclaiming the word of God to the people, he set out across the lands that were north of the Black Sea I also visited the Bosporus, the place where Constantinople was later built, as well as Crimea From Crimea the apostle went to glorious Rome Climbing up the Dnieper, he stopped on the hills where Kyiv was later founded and predicted that a great city with many churches would be built on this site Then he went to Novgorod, telling people about the great mercy of God During his lifetime, the Apostle Andrew performed an innumerable number of miracles, healed the sick and even raised the dead The apostle ended his life's journey, just like his teacher - with martyrdom He was tied to the cross upside down, and in this position he preached the word of God for two days Because of his speeches, many more people repented, and even the ruler himself, repenting, ordered his release But Andrei, sensing that his time had come, made sure that the soldiers could not untie the knots on the ropes Now many churches have been erected all over the world in honor of St Andrew the First-Called And the saint himself is considered the heavenly patron of all sailors, as well as many countries including:• Russia;• Ukraine;• Greece;• Scotland;• Sicily;• Romania There are many traditions associated with St Andrew's Day Unmarried girls are especially waiting for him After all, it is on this day that they can find out their fate There is a belief that if a girl puts a bowl of water under the bed on Andrei’s night before going to bed, and puts a man’s hat, a knife, a mirror and some kutya under the pillow, then her betrothed will definitely appear to her in a dream There are a considerable number of other fortune tellings with the help of which young people predicted their fate For example, in Belarus they told fortunes using flax, and in Polesie young men initiated older boys into young men On this day we also went to the ice hole to listen to the water To do this, they dropped to their knees and pressed their ears to the ice at the edge of the ice hole If the water is restless and noisy, you can expect a cold winter with snowstorms, but when it is quiet, then the winter will be quiet and warm There is a belief that from St Andrew's Day until the New Year, you cannot do any weaving work It is also believed that after the holiday, the day increases by one millet grain