April 6 is Dyngus Day!
What in the world is Dyngus Day you might ask, and I am glad you did, because it is a holiday I learned all about during my brief time living in New York.
At its heart, Dyngus Day, or Wet Monday, is a Polish holiday that is celebrated annually on the Monday following Easter, marking the end of the restrictive Lent season.
The rise of Dyngus Day
Looking to showcase ancestral Polish pride and celebrate spring, northern Polish populations began celebrating Dyngus Day. It is not clearly known when the first Dyngus Day was celebrated but it has been a widespread tradition since the 19th century in the northeastern areas of the United States.
Allegedly, the holiday can trace its roots to the baptism of Prince Mieszko I and his entire court, who were baptized on Dyngus Day in 966 A.D. With this act, the first king of Poland brought Catholicism to the country. For this reason, one of the main traditions of the day is the sprinkling of symbolic baptismal waters in a folk celebration of thanksgiving, denoting the ancient rite of “spring cleaning” one’s life to promote purification and fertility.
Say what about a pussy willow?
A major part of the holiday, pussy willows were initially used by Polish farm boys to attract girls from the village, playfully switching the legs of the young lady they were interested in or sprinkling her with water, or cologne, on Dyngus Day. According to legend, on Tuesday the ladies would reciprocate by throwing dishes at the young men in a hormonal tit for tat.
Pussy willow branches are used because they are one of the first budding plants of spring. The interesting name for the plant is derived from an old Polish legend about a family of kittens who fall into a river while chasing butterflies. According to lore, the mother cat sat on the shoreline crying out for someone to come and save her children. Hearing the mother cat’s cries, the pussy willows dipped their long branches into the raging waters, plucking up the young kittens and returning them safely to their mother. Since that day, the pussy willow plant has produced fur-like blooms every spring.
And just who is this Pussy Willow Prince?
In what has now become a part of Dyngus Day legend, Anderson Cooper was famously extended the gracious offer to be the celebration’s first ever Pussy Willow Prince.
The year was 2012 and Cooper was in the middle of his daily news broadcast when he suddenly, and rather rudely, was overcome with an extreme laughing fit live on air while reporting on Dyngus Day celebrations. In response, event organizers in Buffalo, New York, exercised some good old fashioned American aplomb and extended an official and public invitation to the newscaster. Though Cooper did decline, the incident will forever live in Dyngus Day infamy, and it is highly unlikely a new Pussy Willow Prince will ever be named in Cooper’s fitting stead.
Celebrating Dyngus Day
Dyngus Day celebrations are not limited to throwing water or dishes, switching folks with pussy willows, or crowning tongue-in-cheek Pussy Willow Princes. The day is often raucous, full of vodka, perogies and other Polish treats. Every year thousands flock to Dyngus Day hotspots like Buffalo, New York, eager to get their hands on a complimentary pussy willow limb, enjoy some dancing and polka music, as well as lots of good eats! Now that you know all about Dyngus Day, how do you plan to celebrate?