If I were in Poland right now, this is what I might look like.
In Poland, the day after Easter is known as Smigus-dyngus (sometimes pronounced Smingus-dyngus), which translates to mean something like “the day where boys are supposed to drench girls with water.” In olden times it was thought that the wetter a girl got, the more likely she was to marry (thus most didn’t try very hard to avoid the soaking), but as with most traditions the meaning has been lost for the most part, and it’s just an excuse to dump buckets of water on the girls you know.
I learned about the holiday last year when I did a project for my Myths, Legends, and Folktales class which involved me interviewing That Husband about the Polish traditions he remembers from his childhood. I decided to dig through my documents and find the original transcript so that you can hear about the holiday in my husband’s own words.
This is my typed transcript from what TH dictated to me late one night as I was rushing to get my project done on time (procrastination, me?). This is one of the best projects I did in college, because I know our kids are going to love reading about what life growing up in Poland was like for their father.
The holiday is sometime in April. It’s well no actually it’s March or April. It’s right after Easter. And basically the whole point of the holiday is for guys to get girls wet. So it actually usually begins, the day is a Catholic holiday, which means that everyone goes to church. So usually what we did as kids is either we would bring our water balloons and water guns to church or we would wait for the girls after church. Then we would just get them wet as they went home. But then the priest started cracking down on that so then they would be like okay now all girls can leave but the guys have to stay. So then we have to use tactics like not go to that mass just go to the earlier mass and wait for that next mass to get over. And it’s a big thing. My mom actually once got really mad that I didn’t do it. That I didn’t squirt my mom and my sister because I just kind of forgot, cause you know how I am with holidays. Cause she thought that that was like my responsibility to first thing in the morning just go chase them down with a water gun or something. And then, I think that probably a lot of families have the tradition of when the guy gets the girl then she has to give him something as like a ransom. So she has to give some candy. And the missionaries love the holiday. They go big, I mean they get buckets of water and they just throw it on people on the street. And it’s actually really nice, it’s like the perfect boy scout holiday.
Happy Smingus-dyngus! That Husband is traveling once again, so I won’t be waking up to a glass of water in my face or anything. I guess that is one reason to be grateful for the many days we spend apart from one another?
April 13th, 2009 on 8:08 am
That is hilarious. This sort of thing makes me wonder what started it originally. And I love the boys ingenuity in going to earlier masses so that they could still wait for the girls after a later mass.
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Jenna Reply:
April 13th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Some of the sites that I read suggested that one of the famous Catholic Bishops from Poland was baptized on Easter Monday?
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April 13th, 2009 on 9:16 am
It is interesting how different holidays evolved and borrowed ideas from another culture. Especially since the catholic church was big into adopting pagan holidays as its own to gain converts.
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April 13th, 2009 on 11:51 am
Best.”Holiday.” Ever. Many of my favorite childhood memories come from this day. Who am I kidding? I STILL love it!
Of course, being “Americanized Polish” (aka 3rd generation Polish American), the whole family gets involved in the fun rather than just the boys. We were pretty hard core. My parents slept with glasses of water next to the bud and water pistols under their pillow so we could never surprise them with a glass of water to the face when they were waking up.
Actually — I would be interested in knowing how Kasia’s family celebrated this every year.
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April 13th, 2009 on 11:51 am
oops! meant to say “bed” not “bud”
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April 13th, 2009 on 12:07 pm
LOL! OK, so this holiday once came up in a board game my friends and I were playing. Maybe it was “Apples to Apples” (which is a fun game). Somehow, one thing led to another and I got named the “Dyngus Queen.” My friends still love to point this one out to me. I believe they decided that the Dyngus Queen wears a white t-shirt the day after Easter and some sort of tiara. Check me out, I’m already falling down on the job. No crown, and a business shirt.
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April 13th, 2009 on 12:27 pm
Wow, I think I would hate that a lot! The first photo, I at first thought the water was freezing as it came out of the bucket! An interesting tradition, though!
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April 13th, 2009 on 1:53 pm
seems fun! but i guess it’s freezing cold out there..
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April 13th, 2009 on 5:03 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! I love this. This is my favorite thing you’ve ever posted. God bless poland!
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April 14th, 2009 on 5:56 am
Since we were off from school on Easter Monday the boys would follow us around the neighborhood all day long only they also used eggs. When the eggs hit the house our parents weren’t too happy. There must be a dyngus hat out there somewhere. I’ll start the search.
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April 14th, 2009 on 6:35 am
So the girls just take it? They don’t water-fight back? Wow!
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April 15th, 2009 on 1:52 am
Awesome.
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April 26th, 2011 on 7:36 am
They celebrate Dyngus Day in South Bend, IN, where I used to live. But it’s mostly about drinking and politics… I don’t remember anyone getting water thrown at them. Gotta love how the U.S. appropriates ethnic holidays and turns them into drinking games. (Just kidding. I actually do not love this.)
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