January 3 – check stocks

January 3 in the folk calendar – Peter-half-feed. So it was called because by this day half of the stocks prepared for the winter were usually eaten. The hostesses on this day sorted out all the stocks, looked to make sure that they were enough until the next harvest.

Preparations for Christmas continue. The house needs to be cleaned very carefully. The girls especially tried that day, sweeping rubbish even from the farthest corners, since there was such a sign: the more a girl sweeps garbage, the more happiness she will have.

To protect households from the evil eye, some silver item was placed in a conspicuous place, and it was believed that the larger this item, the more protection it would provide to all households.

On this day, it was impossible to wish people health, happiness and money – there was a belief among the people that everything would turn out exactly the opposite. Moreover, the ban also extended to such familiar words of greeting and farewell as “Hello” and “Be healthy”.

Even Peter-half-feed was subject to such prohibitions: you can’t promise anything or swear – you won’t be able to keep your word; you can’t pick up someone else’s thing from the ground – to losses; you can’t peep and eavesdrop – problems with vision and hearing will begin; you can not cut your hair – hair may begin to fall out; you can not catch and eat fish – to the disease.

Folk signs on January 3 are as follows:

– the wind changes direction – to warming;

– the frost is weakening – to the snowfall;

– bright red dawn – to a snowstorm;

– a strong snowstorm – the winter will drag on;

– what is the weather on that day, it will be like this in September.

Prophetic dreams that occur on the night of January 4 are often unpleasant, but it is important to analyze them in order to understand what they warn about. And bright and light dreams, as a rule, do not come true. Therefore, it is considered a good sign if nothing is dreamed that night.

Alena Bodrienko.

Illustration: a frame from the film “Kuzya Brownie” (TO “Ekran”, dir. Aida Zyablikova)