Holidays on this day
- Maslenitsa day 2
- Spontaneous Kindness Day
- Day of Russian student groups
- Fuel Service Day of the Russian Armed Forces
- Crab Racing Championship Day
- World Human Spirit Day
- Castle in the Air Day
- Cabbage Day
Significant events in history
1600 Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome.
1852 The Hermitage was opened to the public.
1880 There was a fifth unsuccessful attempt on the life of Alexander II.
1993 The Russian Joint Stock Company “Gazprom” was established.
Persons
On February 17, 1867, Russian naval officer and revolutionary Pyotr Schmidt was born.
On February 17, 1906, the Russian writer, author of poems for children Agnia Barto was born.
On February 17, 1907, Soviet sculptor and famous climber Evgeny Abalakov was born.
On February 17, 1924, Soviet and Armenian intelligence officer, Hero of the Soviet Union Gevork Vartanyan was born.
Folk calendar
Nikola Studeny.
The Monk Nicholas the Confessor, Abbot of Studiya, whose memory is celebrated on this day, lived in the 9th century. During the cruel persecution of Christians by the Byzantine emperor Leo the Armenian, the Monk Nicholas shared the fate of the Monk Theodore the Studite: they were repeatedly imprisoned and tortured in every possible way. However, they continued to zealously spread Orthodoxy among Christians. During his confessional and ascetic life, Nicholas received from God the gift of healing, which did not dry up even after his death in 868.
In Rus', this day also had another name – Wolf Matchmaker. It was believed that at this time animal weddings were in full swing in the forests. People said that “only Nikola Studeny knows about animal trails in the forest,” and only he knew where the mother wolf made her lair and how the foxes started dancing.
It was no coincidence that Nikola was nicknamed “icy”. It was a rare year in Rus' that there was no frost on this day. There are sayings about this: “It’s a cold day, put on your fur coat again”; “A mountain of snow will fall on Icy Nikola.”
On Nikola it was customary to watch the trees. If long spruce branches bend towards the ground, this means a blizzard. And if the deciduous forest turns black, you can wait for a thaw.
Name day on this day
Alexander, Alexey, Andrey, Anna, Arkady, Boris, Vasily, Georgy, Dmitry, Ekaterina, Ivan, Joseph, Kirill, Mikhail, Nikolay, Peter, Sergey, Fedor, Yuri.
Source: Calend.ru.
