On the Feast of the Conception of the Honourable and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, there are several prohibitions that must not be broken.
During the reign of Herod, the king of the Jews, there lived in the town of Aimkarim in Judea an old priest, Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth. They faithfully obeyed all the commandments of the Lord and the Jewish law, but were childless. Though both spouses were of advanced age, they did not lose hope in God, but believed that the Lord would remove the shame of childlessness from them.
When Zacharias was offering the censer sacrifice in the temple, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that Elizabeth would bear a son. Zacharias did not believe this joyful news and immediately became numb, and was able to speak only at the moment of naming his son Ivan, predicting that he would be the forerunner of the Messiah.
What is forbidden to do on the holiday
In addition to the traditional prohibitions for any church holiday (to work excessively hard, to do manual work, to swear profanely and to drink), on 23 September there were also special restrictions that have survived to this day:
1. Women are forbidden to scold their companion (whether it is a husband or just a friend). Otherwise, in the life of a representative of the fair sex will begin such difficulties, which she will not be able to solve on her own.
2. should not make fateful decisions – neither hasty, nor weighed. It is believed that their consequences can be unpredictable.
3. should not complain about fate (including disobedient children or unfaithful husband) and tell anyone about their problems. Otherwise, you will have to live with them for the rest of your life, they said.
4. to list money in the purse and small coins. It is believed that this, too, can cause further problems with money in the coming month.
In the people on the feast of the conception of the honest, glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John it was customary to guess at one’s own fate. For this purpose they went to the place of confluence of two rivers, took two jugs of water. They put them at home and watched which one would evaporate faster. If the water evaporated from the jug taken from a full-flowing river, then problems would persist throughout the year.