The holiday is in honor of St. Holy Martyr Blaise, whom the church honors on February 11. In the folk calendar, the holiday is Vlasovden. Blaise of Sebaste was beheaded for Christ in 312, he is the patron saint of domestic animals.
St. Vlas was a healer and bishop of Sebasteia, Lesser Armenia, present-day Turkey. According to his life, he was killed after being tortured with beatings, with an iron comb and finally beheaded. He is known as San Biagio in Italy and San Blas in Spain.
In iconography, St. Vlas is often depicted with one of the instruments used in his execution - the iron comb. He treated diseases related to the throat in children and animals, performing many miracles
According to folk beliefs, Vlasy is considered the successor of the ancient Slavic god Volos - god of animals, hunting, trade and forests. For our ancestors, he was only the protector and deliverer of domestic animals and especially of the harnessed cattle from the disease “vlas“ and the healing of their wounds.
Therefore, it is believed that today's holiday is in honor of the harnessed cattle, for the health of the oxen, so that they do not get sick with “vlas“. When they took the cattle to water in the morning, the farmers put special ritual loaves on their horns. Then they soaked them with water and gave them first to the oxen. Then they distributed the same bread to people passing by and blessed them.
On this day, it was strictly forbidden to harness animals to work, because, according to legend, they would break the nine belts with which they were girded. Failure to comply with the ban meant illness or death for the animal.
In many places, farmers celebrate so that the fields would not be "wool-fed," i.e., so that the stalks would not come out without an ear. Shepherds also celebrate so that lambs with coarse wool would not be born, i.e., "woolly-fed."
From the farm, the tradition was carried over to the household, where women were not supposed to knead so that the flour would not "wool-fed" and not spin so that the "wool" would not fall out. in their eyes and their children's. On this day, no "Vlasian" work is done.
Vlasovden name days: Vlas, Vlasi, Vlaska, Vlasena, Vlasenka