Chisinau marks its day on the Protection of Ever-Virgin Mary. Known in Slavonic Church as Pokrov ("protection"), it is a feast of the Mother of God celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church on October 14, on the Julian calendar. The feast celebrates the protection afforded to the faithful through the intercessions of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary). According to Eastern Orthodox Sacred Tradition, the apparition of Mary the Theotokos occurred during the 10th century at the Blachernae church in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), where several of her relics (her robe, veil, and part of her belt) were kept. On Sunday, October 1 at four in the morning, St. Andrew the Blessed Fool-for-Christ, who was a Slav by birth, saw the dome of the church open and the Virgin Mary enter, moving in the air above him, glowing and surrounded by angels and saints. She knelt and prayed with tears for all faithful Christians in the world. The Virgin Mary asked her son, Jesus Christ, to accept the prayers of all the people entreating him and looking for her protection. Once her prayer was completed, she walked to the altar and continued to pray. Afterwards, she spread her veil over all the people in the church as a protection. An icon of the Virgin Mary praying, surrounded by people, was said to be kept in the Blachernae church. It is said to reproduce the events as St Andrew saw them that day. The history of the City’s Day starts in the year 2000. The holiday was chosen as the day of the city by the Chisinau City Hall and representatives of both Metropolitan Churches - the Metropolitan Church of Moldova and the Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia. Traditionally, on the City’s Day the people receive guests with delicious food. In the evening, the residents and guests go to the center of Chisinau to dance the traditional Romanian round dance and amuse themselves. Since the institution of the City’s Day, the local public authorities have made the Chisinau residents many gifts: built trolleybus lines in Schinoasa and Posta Veche quarters, on Dacia Blvd. and Tudor Vladimirescu St; reconstructed Ismail and Ciuflea streets; opened a modern school in Posta Veche’ erected the Belfry of the God’s Birth Cathedral. Chisinau was attested as rural settlement in October 1436, several days after the Protection of Virgin Mary feast.