Comments on: maybe adam sandler will make a song

maybe adam sandler will make a song

tsarfan — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:19:03 -0800

The little known day-after-Easter holiday originally celebrated in Poland involves men dumping water on women and women chasing men around with sticks or pussywillows.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:22:30 -0800

Any holiday with dumping, sticks, willows and pussy is worthy of the title Dingus Day, surely.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:22:38 -0800

That does it: I'm moving to Poland.

By: shoppingforsanity

shoppingforsanity — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:28:54 -0800

What exactly is a dingus anyway? I've always wondered.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:39:39 -0800

This is the reverse in the Czech Republic - men chase women around with bundles of switches and women do the pouring of water. I was in Prague over Easter a few years ago, and we heard about this before we left, chuckling a bit thinking it was some old-timey quaint custom that no longer went on... but when we landed, right in the airport we were dumbfounded to see many men and boys carrying rather serious looking bundles of sticks around. We saw them everywhere we went for days. Being chased and whacked by some rather serious sticks wielded by gangs of teen boys and loutish men did not look fun or quaint. I think the only reason we escaped unscathed is that we must have looked notably foreign. And if there were any doubt, my pigdgen Czech berlitz phrases removed it. It's a rather astonishing holdover of a fertility based custom.

By: mss

mss — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:43:48 -0800

In South Bend, In. it is a big drinking, meet the politicians day, with most the emphasis on drinking. In Riverhead NY it seemed to be more of a eat Polish food day. The only 2 places I've even run across people that had heard of Dingus Day.

By: Slothrup

Slothrup — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:56:02 -0800

There's a Hungarian tradition where on Easter Monday, men go around spraying women with perfume. This tradition is also followed in the parts of Romania that have a large Hungarian minority.

By: Decani

Decani — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 11:59:27 -0800

So... how is this different to any other day?

By: Peter H

Peter H — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:00:58 -0800

I've always heard dingus was another word for pecker.

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:41:59 -0800

Dingusa! Aaah! I married a Polish woman. Her family threatened us with a severe willow-beating on our wedding night if they had found out where we were staying. Nice folk them Polacks ;)

By: Specklet

Specklet — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:44:43 -0800

I didn't know about Dingus Day, but I think I'll surprise my boyfriend with a good ole pussywillow whippin' tonight. Ahem. Dingus is a good word. "any unspecified or unspecifiable object; something one does not know the name of or does not wish to name," 1876, U.S. slang, from Du. dinges, lit. "thing" Is "Du." Dutch?

By: howling fantods

howling fantods — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:45:06 -0800

Dyngus Day, actually.

By: swordfishtrombones

swordfishtrombones — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 12:50:52 -0800

from Du. dinges, lit. "thing" Is "Du." Dutch? Yep, "dinges" is one of the most useful words in the Dutch language. I have never associated it with willow beating, though.

By: Doohickie

Doohickie — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:09:59 -0800

Dingus Day is a good excuse to hit the bars in Buffalo, NY, where I grew up (although the people in Buffalo don't need excuses to hit the bars, they welcome them anyway). When I lived in Detroit, the Polish population wasn't real familiar with Dingus Day; they were more into Paczki Day, the Polish equivalent of Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, where the featured item is the paczki (usually pronounced "poonchki"), a jelly donut that has several thousand calories. People line up at the Polish bakeries in Hamtramck Tuesday morning before dawn in order to buy the paczkis.

By: Doohickie

Doohickie — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:11:09 -0800

Oh, and, Nazdrowie!

By: Numenorian

Numenorian — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:13:16 -0800

The South Bend, IN one is a bit loopy, they've been "celebrating" it for over 75 years. I think it is really a political function now. It seems a lot of people declare that they are running for office today, so there is a lot of gladhanding here. One of our admin assistants is from the polish side of town and we had some good homemade polish food that she made for lunch, I've been comatose all afternoon from it. I think this is something akin to St. Patrick's Day for the Irish.

By: shoppingforsanity

shoppingforsanity — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 13:43:23 -0800

I've always heard dingus was another word for pecker. That's quite a comprehensive list - thanks, it'll be useful. Dingus Day is a good excuse to hit the bars in Buffalo, NY, where I grew up And will you be hitting the bars with willow branches? *crickets chirping*

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:18:54 -0800

This is the reverse in the Czech Republic - men chase women around with bundles of switches and women do the pouring of water. madamjujujive, it is only because just this morning i "beat" several women in lednice, czech republic (in moravia) with a willow stick that i dare step forth to say that no water was thrown on me. instead, i was given an egg (colored a beautiful golden brown in boiled onion skins) and a chocolate egg - as were all the other boys and men who showed up to deliver (very gentle and symbolic) lashes. in slovakia, i was told, the boys throw water and THEN really beat the women, but i assumed this to be czech exaggeration.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:27:03 -0800

What exactly is a dingus anyway? I've always wondered. It's the stuff that dreams are made of:

Spade: And you think the dingus is worth a million, huh?...That's a lot of dough...Minimum, huh? What's the maximum?

A shamus and a gunsel are both after the dingus in The Maltese Falcon.

By: Doohickie

Doohickie — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:53:23 -0800

shoppingforsanity.... *crickets still chirping*

By: semmi

semmi — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 15:01:21 -0800

tradition where on Easter Monday, men go around spraying women with perfume. This definitely has sexual overtones, showing attention to and marking favored women like dogs mark territory. They're too drunk to remember later otherwise.

By: scody

scody — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 15:25:08 -0800

The dingus ate your baby.

By: knave

knave — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:06:41 -0800

Milhouse: I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with the letter D. Nelson: DINGUS. *knocks Milhouse unconscious with a blow to the head*

By: tommasz

tommasz — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:17:40 -0800

I'm of Polish descent and I swear I never heard of this until I came to upstate NY and someone from Buffalo was talking about it. I honestly thought they were making it up. You see, it was the whole pussywillow thing...

By: Zonker

Zonker — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:29:37 -0800

"What exactly is a dingus anyway? I've always wondered." Ze dinkus is kvite zimple, really. It operates on ze same principle zat keeps ze earth spinning 'round ze sun, and zat keeps you from flying off ze earth into ze coldest reaches of outer space vere you vood die like a miserable shvine! Yes, ze principle is ze same, except for ze piece of grrrit zey put in to make ze whole experience more pleasant. -- Professor Erwin Schweide

By: Suparnova

Suparnova — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:38:18 -0800

This is so weird, my friend and I heard about it from a crazy guy on the street and didn't believe it, it was to weird. We just used it as an excuse to start beating guys with sticks. But I guess it was true.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 20:31:51 -0800

three blind mice - dobry den, and thanks for the first hand reporting! It sounds like a benign custom as you describe it, maybe it was some ruffian Slovaks that I saw then, heh? Your account reminded me that the proprietress of the B&B we were in gave us some beautifully painted eggs, and she baked us each a delicious little bread shaped like a lamb. I loved Prague - this thread reminded me ;-)

By: punkrockrat

punkrockrat — Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:04:02 -0800

Hey! This link is to my friend Joe's band, the Low Budgets! he used to be in another band you may have heard, the Dead Milkmen. Back on topic, my grandma used to call this "Dunking Day" and when I was a kid, she always pulled a fast one on my dad and told him something was broken at her house that she needed fixing. Once he arrived, she threw a cup of water on em'.

By: acb

acb — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 07:05:28 -0800

Wasn't there an industrial band named "Electrode Dingus 2000" or something? I wonder if it's connected.