Happy Dyngus Day!
Happy Dyngus Day everybody! Dyngus Day or Eastern Monday, or Wet Monday is a traditional Roman Catholic holiday primarily celebrated in Poland and by some people of Polish decent in the united states. The primary activities are decorating and rolling eggs, dousing people with water and whipping young boys and girls. Needless to say it should come as no surprise that this is a Polish holiday and Dyngus Day seems like the perfect name.
Decorating and rolling eggs is normal and nice. Who doesn’t like to spend all day putting hard boiled eggs into food coloring? Oh thats right the 2/3 of the world who aren’t Christian, but whatever their just jealous I’m sure they wish their holidays were as much fun. In Egypt though Sham El Nassim is on the Eastern Eastern Monday and includes egg painting activities shared by both Christians and Muslims and dates back to 2700 B.C. So I guess Jesus doesn’t have a monopoly on egg painting after all.
Splashing water is also a big part of the festival. Traditionally boys wake up girls early in the morning by dumping buckets of water on their heads. Then the boys would whip the girls about their legs with decorated whips. Needles to say this must be the favorite holiday for girls throughout Poland, “I get to be woken up by being drenched with a bucket of water then beaten with a whip, yay I can’t wait! Why can’t Dyngus Day be everyday!”
The modern custom of the holiday now has children throwing water at who ever the see passing by on the street. It is not uncommon from children to pour water on passers-by from tall apartment buildings. The girls are still beaten with whips because quite frankly it was too much fun to give up.
In the United States Dyngus Day is a drinking holiday (big surprise) in cities with large Polish populations such as Chicago (Da Beers). So have a happy Dyngus Day get drunk, throw water on random people and beat women with a whip, that’s the way Jesus would want it.
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Hmm… very interesting. How did you find this out? Is this why I name call people dyngus?
March 24th, 2008 at 5:05 pm