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ROTTERDAM
Polish pride glows during Dyngus Day Elks Lodge party a springtime tradition
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    For the uninitiated, dousing someone with water or whipping them with a willow switch may not sound like an effective method of courtship.
    But these are quintessential tools used to attract the attention of a love interest on Dyngus Day. Find someone you like, splash them with water or give them a friendly tap on the legs with a branch of girl private willow and then hope they reciprocate.
    Of course, this process is only a small part of the tradition surrounding the annual Polish rite of spring. More pervasive elements of the celebration include hours of polka dancing, feasting on traditional Polish fare and imbibing in healthy quantities of “pivo” — the Polish word for beer.
    “This is all about celebrating Polish heritage,” said Mike Komazenski, who helps organize the annual celebration. “This is like our St. Patrick’s Day.”
    Rotterdam’s Dyngus Day celebration drew more than 600 rollicking revelers last year and Monday’s nine-hour event wasn’t expected to be any smaller. By mid-afternoon on Monday, roughly 100 people had already filed into the Rotterdam Elks Lodge, where the celebration took refuge after high winds toppled some of its outdoor tents on Curry Road.
    For many Polish-Americans, Dyngus Day represents a time to celebrate the end of the Lent, the arrival of Easter and the beginning of spring. The celebration is associated with the baptism of Prince Mieszko I and his court in A.D. 966, but has since come to represent a day of Polish pride in the United States.
    Buffalo’s celebration annually draws roughly 60,000 people to the city and is usually credited with being the largest organized Dyngus Day celebration in the world. And while the Rotterdam celebration is only a fraction of the size, it’s generally considered the second largest of its kind.
    “It’s just kind of grown,” said Stan Wilgocki, who founded the event four years ago.
    Wilgocki and other fi refi ghters initially established the Casimir Pulaski Society in 2006. The organization was formed as a way of supporting local Polish heritage, but quickly grew to encompass members from around the Capital Region. ....................>>>>......................>>>>......................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00102&AppName=1

Dirty Dyngus Magee

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Find someone you like, splash them with water or give them a friendly tap on the legs with a branch of girl private willow and then hope they reciprocate.

Al, got a video of Rhonda?

Quoted from mikechristine1

Al, got a video of Rhonda?

Look close, I think diane's using a willow switch to move fatass along........

Laughs for life.


It's nice to know that there are other ethnic groups living in our Town.....and surnames ending in "i" is not such a bad thing....

and this is not meant to criticize.....but to recognize ethnic groups besides FAMILIA.

lol

Actually, before I turned around and did some actual research on it, I thought this was a holiday that Ronnie would love to celebrate.  I don't know, actually thought it was in celebration OF Ronnie.  Seems it is an actual holiday, though, and seems to have brought him back out of the woodwork.

It is nice to see the Polish culture being celebrated locally.  It is after all, one of the greatest cultures (in terms of food, contributions to the world, etc.) on the face of the earth.  
In years past, Dyngus Day was never celebrated much in this area --- probably depends on which part of Poland your ancestors came from and when they came over.  I knew of it as a youth because it was celebrated in Detroit and Buffalo.
The only thing in the article that I would dispute is the characterization of Dyngus Day as the "Polish Saint Patrick's Day" -- St. Adalbert (April 23) and St. Stanislaus (April 11) and St. Casimir (March 4) are considered the patron saints of Poland along with St. Joseph (March 19 and May 1).   Their feasts are primarily religious in tone but those which fall during Lent have been known to lend themselves to a bit of revelry (especially St Joseph) as a break from the Lenten Fast.