Note 691 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

In Slavic antiquity Friday, or some day corresponding to it, appears to have been consecrated to a female divinity, whose personality, after the introduction of Christianity, became merged into that of St. Prascovia. “As she is supposed to wander about the houses of the peasants on her holy day, and to be offended if she finds certain kinds of work going on, they are (or at least they used to be) frequently suspended on Fridays. It is a sin, says a time-honoured tradition, for a woman to sew or spin, or weave, or buck linen on a Friday, and similarly for a man to plait bast shoes, twine cords, and the like. Spinning and weaving are especially obnoxious to ‘Mother Friday,’ for the dust and refuse thus produced injure her eyes.” The peasants believe that any work begun on Friday is sure to go wrong (W. R. S. Ralston, Russian Folktales, London, 1873, pp. 198 sq.).