The «Lelnik» holiday was usually celebrated on the eve of St. George's Day (Egorius Veshny). These days were also called «Red Hill» because the setting was a hill located near the village. A small wooden or turf bench was installed there. The most beautiful girl was seated on it, who played the role of Lyalya (Leli).
To the right and left of the girl on the hill, offerings were placed on a bench. On one side was a loaf of bread, and on the other side was a jug of milk, cheese, butter, egg and sour cream. Woven wreaths were laid out around the bench. The girls danced around the pew and sang ritual songs in which they glorified the deity as a nurse and giver of the future harvest. As she danced and sang, the girl sitting on the bench put wreaths on her friends. Sometimes after the holiday, a fire (olelia) was lit on the hill, around which people also danced and sang songs.
For modern people, the name Leli is associated with the fairy tale by A.N. Ostrovsky «Snow Maiden», where Lel is presented as a wonderful young man playing the pipe. In folk songs, Lel is a feminine character — Lel, and the main participants in the holiday dedicated to him were girls.
It is significant that in the rituals dedicated to Leli, the funeral motif present in other summer holidays, for example, in Rusal Week and Ivan Kupala Day, was always absent.
In spring rituals, various magical actions with eggs were widely used throughout the Slavic world. Throughout the spring, eggs were painted — «pissant», «painted» — and various games with them. The church Easter calendar has largely obscured the archaic essence of rituals associated with eggs, but the content of the Easter eggs painting takes us into deep archaism. There are heavenly deer, pictures of the world, and many ancient symbols of life and fertility. Ethnographic museums house thousands of Easter eggs, which are the most widespread heritage of pagan performances.
Eggs, both colored and white, played an important role in spring rituals: going to the first plow was done with « with salt, with bread, with a white egg»; the egg was broken on the head of a horse or plowing ox; the egg and cross cookies were a mandatory part of the sowing rituals. Eggs were often buried in the ground and rolled through a field sown with a vein. Eggs were placed at the feet of the cattle when driven out on St. George's Day and the barn, and placed in the gates of the barn so that the cattle would step over them; They walked around the cattle with eggs and gave them to the shepherd.
Similar holidays exist among many peoples of Europe. In Italy they celebrate the primavera — day of the first greenery; in Greece, since ancient times, they have been celebrating on this day the return to earth of Persephone, the daughter of the fertility goddess Demeter.