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Smigus-dyngus (Easter Monday)

March 28, 2016 by Lois Britton 4 Comments

During our time in Poland, we’d heard dire warnings about Śmigus-dyngus (the day after Easter). Friends talked of teenage boys dousing tram passengers by tossing buckets of water on them as the doors opened at a tram stop or water balloons being dropped on passers-by from apartment buildings.

I heard that these pranks had become so extreme that there was talk of the police becoming involved. Easter Monday called for a good deal of caution.

Smygus-dyngus

Photo credit: Lorene W. This sculpture belongs to my friend and fellow blogger, creator of adventureshereandthere.blogspot.com

Maybe we weren’t out much on Śmigus-dyngus, but we’d never seen evidence of the asperges gone awry. Asperges in its proper form consists of a priest sprinkling the congregation with holy water.

When the rector was retiring at the Episcopal church where I work, he dipped a sprig of rosemary in holy water and asperged parishioners in a special blessing on his last Sunday with them. (I mention this definition and example because it’s something I’d never come across in my mainstream Protestant experience.)

On our last Easter in Poland, we were out for a bike ride, waiting for a light at Rondo Śródka, at the tram stop in the middle of the road.

I thought I felt something on my leg, and I looked down to see a young girl, four or five years old, squirting first me and then Ed with her pink water pistol.

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She was holding her grandmother’s hand and looking shyly mischievous. We both played along, feigning shock and surprise, in English of course, which seemed to give her great satisfaction.  Her grandmother gave us a smile, glad that the foreigners understood.

I was glad that we got to experience śmignus-dyngus while we were in Poland. It was like being in the know on an inside joke. We were just lucky that it was such a tame experience.

Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.

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Filed Under: Holidays, Uncategorized

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Michelle

    March 28, 2016 at 9:18 pm

    I’d love to hear you actually pronounce this!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      April 9, 2016 at 11:30 pm

      HAAHA, Michelle; this is actually easier than you’d think. It has more vowels than many Polish words!

      Reply
  2. Lorene Wedeking

    April 2, 2018 at 10:20 am

    When I lived in Hungry I asked if this happened there. The young women who live there explained to me perfume is used in Hungry, not water. And they added, “By the time you get home you really stink.”

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      April 2, 2018 at 5:13 pm

      Reply

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