On March 22, Russia traditionally celebrated the holiday of spring or the Day of the Magpie. It is named not in honor of the magpie: the name implies that 40 birds fly from the south that day. Especially among all these birds, larks were revered, therefore the second (and chronologically - the first) name of the holiday is Larks.
"On Larks, day and night are compared" - says an old Russian proverb. According to the new style, March 22 is the day of the vernal equinox, the day when 40 species of various birds return from Iria (a fabulous southern country), and larks arrive earlier than anyone else. According to ancient myths, the keys to Irius were initially kept by the crow, but she angered the gods, and the keys were handed over to the lark. In this regard, one of the main signs of the holiday is the preparation of miniature birds and larks from rye dough. In the old days, they were baked to invoke spring. In some regions, hemp oil was certainly added to the dough.
Several baked larks were put on the windowsill and the window was opened, the rest were given to children, who put them on sticks or poles and ran out into the street. There, the children, laughing and jumping, sang vesnyanka - special ritual songs for invoking spring. Then the birds were eaten, leaving the heads for the cattle.
Also, with the help of baked birds, they were guessing, putting various symbolic little things in the cooking process: whoever gets a ring will soon get married or get married, whoever gets a penny will get rich, whoever has a folded cloth, will have a child, etc. Among men, the first sower was chosen in the same way: whoever gets the lot, he scatters the first handful of grain. The connection between the larks and the sowing theme is not accidental. The flight of this bird looks extremely unusual. First, it soars up, and then falls down like a stone. Because of this, the people said: "the lark plows the sky."
With the advent of Christianity, the holiday of the Lark did not disappear, but changed and received its second name - the Day of the Magpie. The tradition of roasting birds and the saying "The lark brought forty birds with him" has also been preserved. A new custom arose - to bake forty balls of rye or oat flour and throw out one by one every new day.
