Based on shopkeepers’ reports, there may not be much pomlázka whipping going on this year.
Or maybe it’s just the bad weather putting a damper on sales of the braided willow sticks, according to kiosk proprietors selling them at Easter markets in Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. … The pagan fertility rite of whipping women to keep them fertile and beautiful on Easter Monday actually dates to the Middle Ages. Boys and men go from house to house reciting Easter rhymes to get treats such as chocolate, eggs and shots of slivovice. …
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and is celebrated as a holiday in some largely Christian cultures, especially Roman Catholic cultures. Easter Monday in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar is the second day of the octave of Easter Week. In the Eastern Catholic Byzantine Rite and the Eastern Orthodox Church, Easter Monday is called Bright Monday. In Poland and parts of the United States, Easter Monday is called Dyngus Day.
Dyngus Day or Wet Monday (Polish Śmigus-dyngus or Lany Poniedziałek) is the name for Easter Monday in Poland. In the Czech Republic it is called Velikonoční pondělí or Pomlázka. Both countries practice a unique custom on this day.
In Poland, traditionally, early in the morning boys awake girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head and striking 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.
One theory is that Dyngus originates from the baptism on Easter Monday of Mieszko I (Duke of the Polans, c. 935 - 992) in 966 AD, uniting all of Poland under the banner of Christianity. Dualism and “twins” are featured in Slavic pre-Christian paganism. Dyngus and Śmigus were twin pagan gods; the former representing water and the ‘moist’ earth (Dyngus from dyn gus - thin soup or dingen - nature) and the later, representing thunder and lightning (Smigus from Śmigać or to making a whooshing sound). In this theory, the water tradition is the transformation of the pagan water god into the Christian baptism. The custom of pouring water was an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification, and fertility. It is alleged that the pagan Poles bickered with Nature/Dyngus by means of pouring water and switching with willows to make themselves pure and worthy of the coming year. Others have suggested that the striking tradition is the transformation of the ritual “slap” of Christian confirmation. However, still others suggest that the Smigus tradition is actually simply a youthful recapitulation of a Good Friday Polish tradition, in which parents wake their children with switches from twigs, whispering the words of a Lent prayer “the wounds of God” or “God is wounded” -’bozerani.
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 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 girl he fancied and awaken her by 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 related custom, unique to Poland is that of sprinkling 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
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.
For Easter Monday in Hungary, perfume or perfumed-water is used. The girls would reward the boys who sprinkle with coins or Easter eggs.
Along with Good Friday, Easter Monday is a public holiday in historically-Protestant countries such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden and certain British Commonwealth countries such as Australia. Good Friday and Easter Monday are Bank Holidays in the United Kingdom and in Canada, making a four-day weekend.
Though not largely observed in the United States, the day remains informally observed in some areas such as the state of North Dakota, and some cities in New York, Michigan, and Indiana. Easter Monday was a public holiday in North Carolina from 1935 to 1987.
Traditionally Polish areas of the country such as Chicago observe Easter Monday as Dyngus Day. In the United States, Dyngus Day celebrations are widespread and popular in Buffalo, New York, Wyandotte, Michigan, Hamtramck, Michigan, La Porte and South Bend, Indiana. 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.
