What with all the talk about kielbasa, another peculiarity of Polish culture nearly slipped right by. No, not pink flamingos. We’d certainly be remiss if we neglected to mention the imminent arrival of Dyngus Day on March 28.
The roots of Dyngus Day are shadowy and mysterious, but there are a few things that can be said with certainty about it:
1: People will drink on this day.
2: Men throw water on women.
3: Women hit men with pussy willow branches.
4: It doesn’t make any sense at all.
Point four (4) is what makes Dyngus Day the most perfect holiday there is. Yes, leave it to the Pols to create one of strangest of all holidays. This can merely be seen as part of the long-standing tradition of the Polish people to engage in all sorts of inventive strangeness, from the dark origins of Dyngus Day, creating tank periscopes, making animated puppet movies of dead animals, and on through to the creation of Esperanto. Polish inventions, all!
So break out the water guns, grab your pussy willows, avoid vegetarian kielbasa, and get ready to polka like you mean it.
Oh yes, and don’t forget to have a drink. Do it up Big Lebowski or Steve Albini style, whichever works best for you.
Sto lat!