According to the folk calendar - Iverskaya

According to the popular calendar, on October 26 (or October 13 according to the old style), Orthodox Christians celebrate a holiday in honor of the Iveron Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary She is also called the Gatekeeper or Goalkeeper It is customary for people to pray to her to get rid of everyday troubles and find consolation The holy face helped protect against fire and improve soil fertility The original of the miraculous icon is now kept on Mount Athos in the Iveron Monastery It was written by the evangelist Luke and has miraculous properties The legend about its discovery says that in the 9th century, one of the residents of Nicaea decided to protect the face of the Mother of God from the iconoclasts and threw the icon into the sea, where it lay for two centuries In the 21st century, monks from the Iversky Monastery saw the face of the Mother of God on the surface of the water, which was supported by a pillar of fire The Virgin Mary instructed St Gabriel the Holy Mountain to walk on the water and transfer the icon to the temple The next morning, the face miraculously appeared above the gates of the monastery The icon was moved to the church several times, but every morning it again appeared above the gate Then they finally decided to leave her in the place that was chosen by her Since then, the icon began to be called the Goalkeeper or Gatekeeper It is customary for people to organize baths on Iverskaya On holiday, the bathhouse was heated hotly, and containers with infusions of various medicinal herbs were placed on the shelves It was believed that on October 26, a person suffering from epilepsy could be cured by taking a steam bath People believed that the spirit could drive out the disease and the patient would recover The people believed that the bath spirit is a special creature that always hides from people, but can indicate its presence with noise He drove away those visitors who were objectionable to him, began knocking and throwing stones They also said that the bath spirit could turn into a cat, dog, hare, frog or broom They dubbed him Bannik and said that he really loves to swim and does it after 2-3 changes of people who have been in the bathhouse, since he prefers the third, fourth and fifth couples So that Bannik could calmly take a steam bath at night, soap, water and a broom were left for him in the bathhouse But the peasants themselves did not go to the bathhouse after sunset It was also believed that there should be no icons in the bathhouse, and one must wash after first removing the cross According to signs, the weather for October 26 was usually predicted The most common of them were considered: • if at dawn the sun appears from behind the clouds, then the weather is expected to be changeable; • if there are many gray tones and no red shades in the morning sky, then the weather will be good, windless; • clouds floating quickly from the south, do not indicate impending bad weather;• if the temperature at night remains the same as during the day, then the sky will be cloudy for a long time;• the early crow of roosters foreshadows warm days;• if the roosters crow at an unusual time for them, then the weather will soon change;• sparrows are splashing in the water – to precipitation; • if a cat hides its head and licks its tail, the weather will worsen People who celebrate their birthday on October 26th are distinguished by their perseverance and desire to achieve their goals They constantly defend both their own and public interests They try to achieve everything in life on their own People around them value them for their talent and ability to realize themselves Emerald can bring them joy and peace of mind