Happy Baptism!
January 19th Epiphany – the last holiday of the calendar cycle: "Holy Baptism and Christmas Forgiveness".
On this day, according to the Orthodox calendar, the baptism of Jesus Christ was celebrated, and the water was consecrated. People believed in the miraculous power of this water and used it in various domestic situations and events: it was given to the sick to drink, it was sprinkled on a new house before moving in, and on beehives to help the bees thrive. The baptismal water was used to bless the fields before sowing. In some places, on this day, certain peasant works that were forbidden during all of Christmas could be performed. Epiphany was marked by the coldest frosts, after which winter gradually turned to summer. People said: "Whether it freezes or not, the Epiphany has passed – not to Christmas, but to Peter," implying that there would be no more frosts. Epiphany was a day on which people oriented themselves in predicting future weather ("If it is very cold on Epiphany – it will be very hot during harvest"), and they tried to predict the quality of the future harvest ("If the day is warm on Epiphany – there will be dark bread").
Dmitry KUZNYATSOU.