November 4 is the day of the winter Our Lady of Kazan and the Day of National Unity
CrimeaPRESS reports:
Today is the day of veneration of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God, one of the most famous Russian Orthodox shrines. People call the holiday “autumn (winter) Kazan”. The celebration is based on historical overtones.
- According to legend, after a fire occurred in 1579 that destroyed most of the city, nine-year-old Matrona saw the Mother of God in a dream, who told her to go to the ashes and dig up an icon. The girl obeyed, and as a result, a monastery was founded at the location of the icon. Matrona became his first nun. Subsequently, several copies of the icon of the Kazan Mother of God were made. One of them went to Moscow, where Ivan the Terrible began to own it, the second came to St. Petersburg during the reign of Peter the Great. In the 19th century, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was the most revered icon in Rus’. At the beginning of the twentieth century, it disappeared — they said that someone named Bartholomew Chaikin stole the icon from the Bogoroditsky Monastery. He sold the salary and valuables, and burned the icon. However, there is also a legend according to which the abbess of the monastery usually replaced the icon with a copy at night, the thief only stole it, and the original is now hidden in a safe place.
And one more historical moment associated with the icon:
- In those distant times, which are now commonly called the Time of Troubles, in 1612 on this day (according to the old style — October 25), Russian militia troops under the command of Kuzma Minin and Dmitry Pozharsky entered Moscow, liberated from Polish invaders, with a religious procession. In front they carried the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In honor of such a victory, Prince Dmitry Pozharsky later built a temple. And in 1613, a Russian monarch finally reigned on the Russian throne — Tsar Mikhail Romanov, the first representative of the crowned Romanov dynasty, which would remain on the throne until the revolution.
Currently, November 4 is celebrated not only as the day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, but also as the Day of National Unity. This holiday was established in honor of the liberation of Moscow in 1612 and was first proclaimed in 2004-2005. Currently in Russia this day is a non-working day.
As for folk traditions, (since this period was known as a wedding period), unmarried girls who were worried that they did not have gentlemen were recommended to perform a special ritual. On November 4, you should get up early and go to the birch grove to find a leaf covered with frost. They look in such a sheet as if in a mirror — it was believed that this would help attract suitors.
Signs of the day:
- The day turned out to be foggy — a sign of warm weather.
- Clear and sunny weather all day means frost.
- On Kazanskaya before lunch – rain (autumn), after lunch – snow (winter).
- It didn’t rain — this means a difficult and lean year.
- The supplies in the bins for Kazanskaya don’t even think about decreasing — in time for the harsh, frosty winter.
- Getting ready for a long journey means bad luck on the way.
- If you ventilate the cellar on this day and fumigate it with smoke from dried juniper grass, no one will touch the supplies, and they will not dry out until spring.
- Heavy rain on November 4 means the bad weather will continue for a long time.
- Morning fog foreshadows a thaw, and a clear day — a cold snap.
- You cannot go on a long journey on November 4 — this, according to signs, promises misfortune.
- If you get married on November 4, this is a good sign and a guarantee of happiness for the newlyweds.
- If you pray to Our Lady for deliverance from an accident, she will definitely help.
- If a person was born on November 4, then his talisman is chrysolite.
- No rain — expect a bad harvest next year.
- If there are a lot of supplies in the bins, it is a sign that the winter will be harsh.
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