What promises warm weather on this day, and what – rainy summer
On March 22, the people received the name in honor of the forty Christian martyrs. Also, this day was considered a great holiday associated with the meeting of spring. What rituals were supposed to be performed on this day?
In Russia they used to say: “Nand Magpie is measured against day and night, winter ends, spring begins“. It is on this day that spring must overcome winter, and the news of spring is brought on the wings of a lark.
Housewives for Forty forties usually cooked cookies in the form of birds – 40 pieces. Cookies were eaten with hot sweet tea and distributed to the children, saying: “Larks flew in, sat on the head of the children“. The guys did not sit idle either. They climbed onto the roofs of houses and tried to raise the baked “larks” as high as possible in order to lure the birds, and then scattered crumbs all over the place. It was believed that thanks to such rituals, spring would come faster.
To drive away the last frosts, women baked 40 balls of rye or oat flour. Every day, such bread had to be thrown out of the window one by one so that winter would finally go away.
Watching the weather:
It is believed that if it is warm in Soroca, then for another 40 days people will enjoy the warm weather. On this date, a light breeze warned of a rainy summer. The frost on March 22 promised a rich harvest, especially cereals.
Name days on this day are celebrated:
Alexander, Alexandra, Alexey, Afanasy, Valery, Dmitry, Ivan, Irakli, Kirill, Leonty, Mikhail, Natalia, Nikolay, Peter, Sergey, Taras.