The Monday after Easter is a sea of red and white in Buffalo, as Poles (and people who want to be Polish for a day) celebrate Dyngus Day. Historically a festival to celebrate the end of Lent and the beginning of spring, Buffalo does Dyngus like no other city in the world.
It’s an excuse to get into a water fight on a Monday in April, have some sausage, get dressed up in silly hats and listen to polka music. Here are a few things to keep in mind for this year’s festivities:
1. Don’t miss the parade
If nothing else, make time to check out the parade, which begins at 5 p.m. near the intersection of Broadway and Fillmore in the Polonia district. This is the 13th year for the parade, featuring floats and appearances from various social clubs and elected officials. How many times a year can spectators line the streets and find themselves in the middle of a water war, while people throw candy and sausages from the back of trucks? Awards will be given out for the best use of pussy willows, the best musical performance and the best use of red and white, among other categories. The parade goes down Broadway onto Fillmore, turning on to Peckham Street and ending on Memorial Drive.
2. Driving is optional
Possibly the best and easiest way to make the most of Dyngus Day is to pick up a Pussy Willow Pass. For $10, take a shuttle bus all around Polonia, with stops at the Broadway Market, Grand Hotel, Corpus Christi Church, the Polish Cadets and Falcons and St. Stan’s Church, to name just a few of the dozen stops. Passes can be purchased at Wegmans, the main festival tent on Memorial Drive and Peckham Street, the Broadway Market and a handful of other locations. The pass also means discounted admission to more than two dozen festival halls and taverns across Buffalo and Cheektowaga.
New this year is the Dyngus Day Dash, a two-person relay run on the Houghton Park track. The run is only a mile long and instead of grouping participants by their pace time, runners are grouped by the combined age of a team’s participants. Registration is $30 per participant and includes a t-shirt; all teams must be signed up before the run. The race starts at 10 a.m. and concludes with a weenie roast.
4. Bring cash
Dyngus Day is an excuse to eat, drink and dance all day, but most locations will be running on a cash-only system. There are admission fees to most parties, plus food and drinks available for purchase, and it will make for a much faster transaction to have cash on hand. Otherwise time will be spent looking for an ATM instead of grabbing another pierogi or piwo (that’s Polish for beer).
5. Dress appropriately
The early forecast for Dyngus Day is calling for sun and temperatures in the 60s, but between the walking, the squirt gun battles and the dancing, it pays to be prepared. Think layers and comfortable shoes, with lots of red and white, of course. There isn’t a pinching punishment for not wearing the colors of the Polish flag like there might be for failing to don the green for St. Patrick’s Day, but it doesn’t hurt to fully commit to the day either.
A full list of Dyngus Day events is available here.
Śmigus-dyngus!