Old Style Date: April 16. On this day, three martyrs from Thessaloniki - sisters Agape, Chione, and Irene are honored. According to tradition, the devout sisters, along with other Christian women, hid in the mountains from the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian, but were eventually captured and brought to trial. The women were offered to renounce their faith, but they refused. Agape and Chione were burned on the very first day, and the others were imprisoned to give them a chance to reconsider. After another interrogation, the governor ordered that Irene be taken to a brothel, but there no one dared to touch the righteous woman. Afterward, the martyr was executed. On Irene's (Arina's) day, rivers begin to return to their normal beds, leaving eroded banks and gullies. People used to say: "Arina - breaking the banks!", thus reminding of the danger of collapsing eroded banks due to floods. On Arina, it was customary to deal with seedlings. Planting young cabbage, the women would chant: "Be not skinny, be plump; be not empty, be tight; be not red, be tasty." Similar spells existed for each vegetable. It was believed that after this day several sunny days would follow, allowing the seedlings to grow rapidly. The behavior of the seedlings was also used to predict the hay harvest: if the young plants actively absorbed the irrigation water, it meant that the hay would be cut on dry days. On Arina, it was also customary to whitewash the trunks of garden trees. Name day on this date: Vasilisa, Galina, Irina, Leonid, Mikhail, Nika, Pavel, Timothy