Once upon a time, a very long time ago, Baba Martha (in March) had only 28 days at her disposal, and Younger Sechko (in February), on the contrary, had 31.
In those days, in one small village high in the mountains, there lived an old woman, and she had two little white goats. The old lady had a very sharp tongue.
One day, on the last day of March, the weather became quite warm. The hot sun was high in the sky, and the old woman took her kids to a pasture in the mountains to bask in the sun and nibble on fresh grass. But the old woman could not deny herself the pleasure of teasing Grandma Marta. Taking the kids for a walk, she shouted, laughing: “Baba Marta, go away, your days are over, you can’t do anything to me now, I’m taking the kids for a walk.”
Grandma Martha was angry, but she could not do anything because her time was over.
She then ran as fast as she could to her younger brother Sechko and asked him to give her three days to take revenge on the old woman. And her brother gave her three days. “Well,” said Baba Martha, “let’s see who will laugh last now!”
And Baba Martha covered the sky with clouds, the wind howled, a snowstorm began, the whole earth was covered with ice. In the mountains, far from her home, an old woman trembled with fear and cold until the blood froze in her veins and her heart turned to stone. Baba Martha was angry for three more days and three nights; all the people in the village took refuge in their homes from the terrible storm that she caused.
When the storm subsided, the people from the village climbed up the mountains to the pasture and saw that the old woman and her kids had turned into a pile of stones, and a mountain stream was flowing from under their feet. The old woman was not very liked in the village because of her malice, so this spectacle seemed funny to the people, and they laughed. So Grandma Martha ended up with her own way - she had the last laugh.
Since then, there have been 31 days in March, and the last days of March are popularly called “borrowed days,” and people do not go out to do field work on these days.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru