I’m sure when you first type Dyngus on your computer, Word would put a zigzag line right under it. What is Dyngus Day anyway? Have you heard of Dyngus Day? It’s synonymous to Easter but the celebration is quite different. After Easter Sunday, after a day of putting their Sunday best to go to church, ladies in their prim little Easter hats, men and boys in freshly pressed suits and ties, little girls in their frilly Easter dresses, in Poland, people douse each other with water! Much like at Daytona Beach during Spring Break!

Dyngus Day falls on the first Monday after Easter. This year, Dyngus Day will take place on April 17. In Poland and in all the Polish communities in South Bend and around the world, it’s going to be a wet Easter Monday! American Polonian descendants of the 1890s-1930s immigration often celebrate Dyngus Day with gift giving, food, drinks, music and definitely a few polka dances.

Dyngus Day is actually a commemoration of the birth of Christianity in Poland (966 A.D.) in which Holy Baptism was administered to Prince Mieszko on Easter Monday, uniting all of Poland under the banner of Christianity. The Dyngus custom is also a remembrance of the mass Baptisms that took place in the Lithuania after the marriage of Polish Queen Jadwiga and Lithuanian Duke Jagiello.

Many of the Polish customs date back to pre-Christian practices. The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification, and fertility. The same is true of the complimentary practice of switching with pussy willow branches, from which Dyngus Day (Dyngus Smigus) derives its surname "Smigus" -from "smiganie" -switching.

Following the long (no French fries for a month, are you kidding!) and reflective season of Lent, the second day of Easter, Dyngus is an appropriate time to celebrate the rite of spring and renewal in rituals, songs and dances. Dyngus Day is a day of fun, perhaps a little romantic fun too. Early in the tradition, Dyngus was the exchange of gifts (usually decorated eggs) under the threat of water splashing if one party did not have any eggs ready. Later the focus shifted to the courting aspect of the ritual. With the approval of the parents of course, boys will awaken girls early in the morning and douse them with water and strike them about the legs with long thin twigs made from willow, birch or decorated tree branches. This practice is possibly connected to a pre-Christian, pagan fertility rite, that seems in line with the Ancient Roman. The next day the girls in turn will strike back by throwing dishes or crockery back at the boys.

Most recently, the tradition has changed to become entirely water-focused. It is quite common for girls to attack boys just as fiercely as the boys traditionally attacked the girls. With much of Poland's population residing in tall apartment buildings, high balconies are favorite hiding places for young people who gleefully empty entire buckets of water onto randomly selected passers-by. For Easter Monday in Hungary, perfume or perfumed-water is used. The girls would reward the boys who sprinkle with coins or Easter eggs. In the United States, Dyngus Day celebrations are widespread and popular in polish communities in Buffalo, New York and South Bend, Indiana.