Easter Monday

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Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is celebrated as a holiday in some largely Christian cultures.

Formerly, the post-Easter festivities involved a week of secular celebration, but this was reduced to one day in the 19th century. Events include egg rolling competitions and, in predominantly Catholic countries, dousing other people with water which, at one time, had been holy water blessed the day before at Easter Sunday Mass and carried home to bless the house and food.

Easter Monday on the Catholic liturgical calendar is the second day of the octave of Easter Week.

In the Catholic Byzantine Rite and the Eastern Orthodox Church, Easter Monday is called Bright Monday.

Though not largely observed in the United States, the day remains informally observed in some areas such as the states of North Carolina and North Dakota, and the cities of Buffalo, New York and South Bend, Indiana. Traditionally Polish areas of the country such as Chicago observe Dingus Day as well. Easter Monday is a public holiday, along with Good Friday in Australia (and some other Commonwealth countries). Along with Good Friday, Easter Monday is a Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom (except Scotland), making a four-day weekend.

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Dyngus Day or Wet Monday (Polish Śmigus-dyngus, Lany Poniedziałek, Polewanka or Oblewanka) is the name for Easter Monday in Poland. In the Czech Republic it is called Velikonoční pondělí or Pomlázka. Both countries practice a peculiar custom on this day.

In Poland, traditionally, early in the morning boys awake girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head and strike them about the legs with long thin twigs or switches made from willow, birch or decorated tree branches (palmy wielkanocne); however, the earliest documented[citation needed] records of Dyngus Day in Poland are from the 15th century, almost half a millennium after Poland adopted Christianity.

Benedykt Chmielowski in Nowe Ateny cite after "Carolo Berthold" that this ritual was already in custom in 750, 250 years before Poland officially adopted Christianity.

Early in the Colombian evolution of the tradition, the Dyngus custom was clearly differentiated from Śmigus: Dyngus was the exchange of gifts (usually eggs, often decorated like pisankas), under the threat of water splashing if one party did not have any eggs ready, while Śmigus (from Śmigać, to whoosh, ie make a whipping noise) referred to the striking.

Later the focus shifted to the courting aspect of the ritual, and young unmarried girls were the only acceptable targets. A boy would sneak into the bedroom of the particular girl he fancied and awaken her by completely drenching her with multiple buckets of water. Politics played an important role in proceedings, and often the boy would get access to the house only by arrangement with the girl's mother.

Throughout the day, girls would find themselves the victims of drenchings and leg-whippings, and a daughter who was not targeted for such activities was generally considered to be beznadziejna (hopeless) in this very coupling-oriented environment.

Most recently, the tradition has changed to become fully water-focused, and the Śmigus part is almost forgotten. It is quite common for girls to attack boys just as fiercely as the boys traditionally attacked the girls. With much of Poland's population residing in tall apartment buildings, high balconies are favorite hiding places for young people who gleefully empty full buckets of water onto randomly selected passers-by.

Another similar, although somehow opposite, peculiar Polish custom is dusting bowls (garce) of ashes on people (starts men on women) or houses, celebrated a few weeks earlier at the "półpoście" this custom is almost forgotten, but still practiced on the area around borders of Mazuria and Masovia.

Handmade whip decorated with ribbons called pomlázka
Handmade whip decorated with ribbons called pomlázka

In Slovakia and the Czech Republic, traditionally, early in the morning, boys awake girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head. This practice is possibly connected to a pre-Christian, pagan fertility rite, that seems originated from the similar older customs as the Ancient Roman Lupercalia.

Also, splashing water, and a special handmade whip decorated with ribbons called pomlázka (Slovak: korbáč) is used on females in the morning. The boys usually accompany the whipping with a special Easter carol and then are given a decorated hard-boiled egg (a ribbon, or possibly a snifter of liquor). The girls would reward the boys who sprinkle with coins or Easter eggs. In the afternoon, females can douse males with cold water. In some other parts of Slovakia boys use water or perfume to splash the girls and then girls whip boys on Tuesday.

Easter eggs
Easter eggs

In the United States, Dyngus Day celebrations are widespread and popular in Buffalo, New York, Wyandotte, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana. In Buffalo's eastern suburbs, Dyngus Day is celebrated with a level of enthusiasm that rivals St. Patrick's Day. Common tradition is to buy pussy willow (Salix discolor) to display in the home; this is tied to the "striking" custom from Poland, where goat willow, the European type of pussy willow, was traditionally used for whipping the legs of girls. In South Bend, the day is often used to launch the year's political campaign season (particularly among Democrats)- often from within the West-Side Democratic Club, the M.R. Falcons Club or in local pubs, where buying drinks is favored over handshaking. Notable Dyngus politico's include the late Robert F. Kennedy, Joe Kernan and Evan Bayh. Starting in 2004, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana began celebrating Dyngus Day at the request of South Bend students. The event includes free Polish sausage for students as well as a free concert. This year they will celebrate a "Belated Dyngus Day" the following Monday since Easter Monday falls during a vacation week for students. Wet Monday is also celebrated at Jonathan Edwards College, one of the residential colleges at Yale University, when each year the freshman class storms the college with water weapons, where upperclassmen are ready to defend the college and ensure no one goes home dry.

For Easter Monday in Hungary, perfume or perfumed-water is used. The girls would reward the boys who sprinkle with coins or Easter eggs.

In Guyana, people fly kites, which are made on Holy Saturday.

In Egypt, the ancient festival of Sham El Nessim (Arabic: شم النسيم, literally meaning "smelling of the air") is celebrated on the Coptic (i.e. Eastern) Easter Monday, though the festival dates back to Pharonic times (about 2700 BC) and is celebrated by both Egyptian Christians and Muslims as an Egyptian national holiday rather than as a religious one.

Easter Monday is an official holiday in the following countries:

  1. ^ Public Holidays Act, 1994 (36 of 1994, South Africa) (PDF) (1994-12-07). Retrieved on 2006-04-05.
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