Erm, I thought he rose on the third day, or Easter Monday. I thought Easter Sunday was just a regular sunday caught in with the whole rest of the god murder thingamy
- galenagalaxian (guest) 3-23-2008 7:08 pm

No but Easter Monday or Wet Monday is a special holiday for Eastern Europeans. From wikipedia:

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 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);

[...]

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."

And there is a Hinduski one too. (seriously, that was the caption when I searched the word Śmigus-dyngus)



- L.M. 3-23-2008 8:22 pm

I have a friend who was knocked off her scooter in Phnom Penh by a blast from a firehose. I thought it was New Year's, though, not Easter.
- M.Jean 3-23-2008 8:51 pm

we had this kind of action at our local jersey city park yesterday: holi festival of color
- bill 3-23-2008 10:36 pm

There's a great scene in Deepa Mehta's Water that shows that festival.
- L.M. 3-23-2008 10:57 pm

Geez, look at all those paintings....wahoooooo!
- mister anchovy (guest) 3-24-2008 6:29 pm