It's Dyngus Day!
Mar. 24th, 2008 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bardic_ladyWhat, you may ask, the frak is Dyngus Day?
Also known as Easter Monday or Wet Monday, it's the Monday after Easter and is a festive day marking the end of the solemn Lenten season. The day centers around courting rituals.
Specifically, boys dump buckets of water over the heads of the girls they fancy and if the girls like them back, they hit them about the legs with pussy willows. (In modern times, the holiday is equal opportunity and both boys and girls can be dumpers and/or thwappers)
Historians date the holiday as an established custom in the region we know think of as Poland as early as 750CE. A similar custom exists in Slovakia, but there the boys dump water on the girls on Monday, and the girls don't get to hit them back until Tuesday.
The holiday came to my attention via an news piece informing the public that Dyngus Day in America has been threatened by the unseasonably late frosts on the Eastern Seaboard, which have kept the pussy willows from blooming on schedule. The Polish community, especially in Buffalo, NY, are relying on pussy willow stems imported from warmer climes, but they fear that the supply won't meet the demand and some people will have to go UNPUSSY WHIPPED.
I hereby dump water on all your heads and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, 'I FANCY YOU!'
Also known as Easter Monday or Wet Monday, it's the Monday after Easter and is a festive day marking the end of the solemn Lenten season. The day centers around courting rituals.
Specifically, boys dump buckets of water over the heads of the girls they fancy and if the girls like them back, they hit them about the legs with pussy willows. (In modern times, the holiday is equal opportunity and both boys and girls can be dumpers and/or thwappers)
Historians date the holiday as an established custom in the region we know think of as Poland as early as 750CE. A similar custom exists in Slovakia, but there the boys dump water on the girls on Monday, and the girls don't get to hit them back until Tuesday.
The holiday came to my attention via an news piece informing the public that Dyngus Day in America has been threatened by the unseasonably late frosts on the Eastern Seaboard, which have kept the pussy willows from blooming on schedule. The Polish community, especially in Buffalo, NY, are relying on pussy willow stems imported from warmer climes, but they fear that the supply won't meet the demand and some people will have to go UNPUSSY WHIPPED.
I hereby dump water on all your heads and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, 'I FANCY YOU!'
