There is one day in the year when the consumption of water in Poland shoots up. This is Easter Monday, and it is due to an ancient custom which is still observed both in villages and cities. It is a delightful tradition, Dyngus or Smigus as this custom is called. There are two versions: one amiable and elegant when it is only a matter of a gentle sprinkling with water or scent, the other quite merciless when whole bucketfuls come into play.

The custom of pouring water is an ancient spring rite of cleansing, purification, and fertility. The pagan Poles bickered with nature - Dingen - by means of pouring water and switching with willows to make themselves pure and worthy of the coming year. Tradition also states that the first Polish ruler Prince Mieszko The First (960-992), along with his court was baptized on Easter Monday in 966.

The first recorded Polish writing on Dyngus dates back to the Middle Ages. A Polish historian wrote of what he called the Oblewania. "It is the universal custom, among the common masses as well as among the distinguished, for men to soak the women on Easter Monday. On Tuesday, and every day thereafter until the time of the Green Holidays - Pentecost - the women doused the men."

Dyngus began somewhat around five in the morning, and the custom demanded that the house where the women slept be secretly invaded. The men crept through a window or through a chimney. Sometimes the male head of the house himself, in collusion with the perpetrators, let the men into the house himself to have his women folk abruptly awakened and doused liberally with water. The spirit of Dyngus is described in this lively description from the Poznan region during 1800s:

"Barely had the day dawned on Easter Monday when I woke the boys and gathered some water to start throwing it on the girls. Up with the Piwezyny! (eiderdown)! There was screaming, shouting, and confusion. The girls are shrieking and hollering, but in their hearts they are glad because they know that she who isn't gotten wet will not be married that year. And the more they are annoyed, the more we dump water on them calling, Dyngus - Smigus! Then we had to change our clothes because there wasn't a dry thread on the girls and we boys were not better off."

From the PGST News Vol. XI No.1 Spring 1994 by Stan Garczynski