In Poland, the Monday after Easter is Śmigus-Dyngus, which became shortened in English to Dyngus Day, or “Wet Monday.”
I just learned of the Polish holiday. The tradition is that boys throw or squirt water on girls they like, or swat them with pussy willows. On Easter Tuesday girls return the favor and spray or swat back. Or everyone just sprinkles water on each other on Monday, depending on where you are. It’s a fun little holiday to sort of ‘let loose’ after the restrictive days of Lent.
Buffalo, New York is the Dyngus Day capital of the world. Cleveland, Ohio follows as a close second. They share a web site www.dyngusday.com, that includes information for both cities, including the schedule of festivities and parade route. The web site shows a sense of humor as well. Under the heading ‘Who doesn’t like a Parade?’ It goes on ‘[it’s] really just a bunch of people walking down the street’ and more. It seems like just a fun time and way to celebrate being Polish.
If you’re in the Buffalo area, the parade starts at 5 p.m. April 21, 2014. :-)))
If you go to YouTube and search for Anderson Cooper and Dyngus Day, there’s a two-minute video from two years ago where he can’t stop laughing after he reports on ‘swatting with pussy willows.’ It must be good because there’s over 450,000 hits.
Happy Dyngus Day 2014!
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We attended Dingus Day at the Emmaus Festival in Krakow with our Pilgrimage group there for Holy Week and the Canonization of St. John Paul the Great. Two teenage girls ran past and sprinkled our quite Senior priest Fr, Eldon Mcakamy of Omaha. He was clearly amused, as perhaps only we Seniors can understand.