According to the folk calendar - Vasily Parilshchik

On April 25 (April 12, old style) according to the folk calendar, Vasily Parilshchik is celebrated The day is named after the church date of veneration - the day of remembrance of St Basil of Paria, who lived in Byzantium in the 8th-9th centuries The saint served as a bishop in Paria and was a zealous admirer of icons During the period of iconoclasm, Vasily supported the spirit of the parishioners, refused to destroy icons and allow desecrators of holy icons into the temple He had occasion to be in persecution, to be condemned by heretics, but Vasily felt the grace of God for his merits And among the people, Vasily of Paria was renamed the Steamer, since such a nickname was more suitable for this day The spring weather became really warm, and often the sun would greatly heat the ground, which left a lot of water after the snow melted The result was the effect of evaporation of moisture from the ground, as if it was floating The people rejoiced at this phenomenon, since good heating of the soil ensured a rich harvest On Vasily Parilschik there was a tradition of going hare hunting However, one had to move through the forest with caution, like hares, otherwise there was a risk of bumping into a bear waking up from hibernation The hares themselves had the hardest time of all: either hiding from humans or escaping from foxes and wolves When going hunting, men performed a ritual to appease the bear In the morning, women baked round cakes from the remaining flour and gave them to their husbands They carried the cakes into the forest and left them under a tree or bush for the bear Residents believed that this would protect them from bear encounters, and the clubfoot itself would not touch livestock Also, the peasants cast a spell on river water to Vasily the Steamer The saint was considered a protector against disease, so they took water home from the river and read a spell over it to improve health We washed our faces and hands with this water every Wednesday Signs on Vasily the Steamer indicated the peasants about the future Rainy weather foreshadowed rain again in a week A sunny but cool morning meant a hot summer Flowering of willows was observed at the end of cold weather, and willows - at the onset of warm weather If there was a second river flood, but more abundant than the first, residents prepared for a generous harvest by the end of autumn