Yuri's Day

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Yuri's Day or Saint George Day is a Russian Orthodox feast celebrated twice a year - in spring and in autumn. The Sudebnik of 1497 established autumn Yuri's Day (or rather one week before and one week after it), when the harvest is over, as the only time of the year when the Russian peasants were free to move from one landowner to another. A century later, Boris Godunov's administration interdicted the movement of peasants on Yuri's day, thus finalizing the evolution of Russian serfdom.

A popular Russian expression harking back to that unfortunate event survives to this day (roughly translated, "there you have it, Granny, Yuri's Day", referring to a promise that is not kept).

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This article is based on material from the public domain 1906 Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary.