Dyngus Day 2006 Artvoice, Eddy Dobosiewicz 4/13/06
Well, slap me with a p u s s y willow branch and hose me down, baby, because it's that time of the year again. We're not talking about the tax deadline, we're talking about Dyngus Day. For those of us not from this area, Dyngus Day (a.k.a Easter Monday) is an old, rural Eastern European custom of revelry and horseplay that signifies the end of the Lenten season of sacrifice and the beginning of the new growing season—sort of a reverse Mardi Gras. Very few places in the world still celebrate this event. Even in Poland, where Dyngus is said to have originated, the holiday has dropped off. But to the average Western New Yorker, Dyngus Day means a day of drinking, dancing and debauchery, not necessarily in that order.
It is said that Judge Anne Mikoll and her husband Ted—who was president of the Chopin Singing Society at the time—brought this custom to Buffalo after their trip to Poland nearly 50 years ago, and now this ritual of p u s s y willow spanking and water dousing has spread throughout the region. Buffalo can now lay a claim to being home of the world's largest Dyngus Day celebration.
Put on your "Kiss me, I'm Polish" t-shirts and dust off your dancing shoes, because spring has finally arrived. For a list of all the parties to check out, visit the website at www.DyngusDayBuffalo.com.
Well, I'm fresh out of 'Kiss Me, I'm Polish' shirts, but I do know how to polka. Mainly because I can't tell my left from my right, and that was the only dance I could do when folk dancing. I'm sure there's a story behind the spanking, though...
All I've got left are my KISS ME, MY BLOOD TEST CAME BACK NEGATIVE t-shirts...
For us Canadian-Americans, there's Maggie Trudeau Day, when we chase each other with a maple leaf and douse people with Labatts. No, wait, that's every day...
Where have you gone, Lester Pearson, the province turns its lonely eyes to you, eh, eh, eh...
Davenicity wrote: All I've got left are my KISS ME, MY BLOOD TEST CAME BACK NEGATIVE t-shirts...
For us Canadian-Americans, there's Maggie Trudeau Day, when we chase each other with a maple leaf and douse people with Labatts. No, wait, that's every day...
Where have you gone, Lester Pearson, the province turns its lonely eyes to you, eh, eh, eh...
Just another day in the life, eh?
__________________
If you want your dreams to come true, don't oversleep!
