Monday, April 6, 2026

0:00It is the 6th of April, 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I'm Dan, band-voris. A very happy Monday to you Easter Monday, just as Christmas begins on the 25th, so to his Easter Sunday, the beginning of the Easter feast, taking us to the Ascension. And Pentecost, we have a very appropriate question for today. It comes from a long-time listener, Eric in OH. I-O, Eric writes, Do you know anything about Dingestay? Apparently it's a Polish festival connected to the day after Easter. There's a big celebration here in Cleveland on April 6th. I've found very little information about where this tradition comes from, but I am curious about it in no small part because I think it's funny to say Dingestay, and I thought it

1:05was completely made up. Well, Eric Dingestay is indeed fun to say, but what if I told you that this day is also called Schmiggus Dingestay? And it has been so popular, but controversial, that all the way back in 1410 we have an edict from an archdiocese in Poland titled Dingest Prohibitur, or the Dingest, is prohibited. The day is a very curious blending of Easter celebration, pagan right, and an American festival for Polish immigrants along the lines of St. Patrick's Day for the Irish or October Fest for the Germans. Dingest might refer to a ransom, we're not quite sure what that word means, while Schmiggus refers to a lashing. Its origins are typical for various pagan springrights, eggs or other treats are given outdoor door, willow branches are used as switches to playfully strike one another,

2:06and various water games are played. As is often the case, we find cultural and pagan springrights then baptized into a hybrid of general frivolity with Christian meaning imported in. You might read that Dingestay celebrates the baptism of King Mieschko. He of Poland, who, in 966, was baptized on Easter Monday. He probably wasn't baptized on Easter Monday, but don't let that get in the way. It marked the entrance of the Poles into Christendom. Mieschko was the first of the Piosch dynasty. He battled both the Bohemians and the Kievan Russe for territory, eventually marrying a Bohemian princess and converting to Western Christianity. If you're wondering why the Poles are historically Catholic instead of Eastern Orthodox like their neighbors, there's your answer. His baptism recalls that of Clovis earlier in the conversion of the Franks. The water games that are played are an homage to that baptism.

3:12Hitting each other with willow branches makes sense if you know that in Northern Europe and other places that don't have palm branches, these are the stand-in. And if you've ever been to a Palm Sunday service with palm branches, you know what the kids get up to once the service is over. There are also roosters. We talked about roosters this weekend on the show. What do they represent? Weather veins, Peter, repentance, dawn breaking and scattering the darkness? Sure. And fertility. Eric, I also want you to be on the lookout for people dressed as bears. The tradition has the name Miescho, meaning bear. It probably doesn't, but let's not let proper etymology get in the way of a good time. We have records of dingus day festivities going back to the late 1800s here in America in immigrant Polish communities. By the middle of last century, we have them centered in places like Buffalo, South Bend, Indiana, and Eric's own Cleveland, Ohio. It's a day for polka and parogies and pilsner.

4:14In some places, it is specifically Polish, look for the red and white, but is also blended with other generally Slavic, Catholic, and springtime rights. Now imagine my surprise a few years ago when inside the NBA on TNT with Shaq and Charles Barkley came back from a break on Easter Monday with a willow branch on the table and Shaq pulling out water guns and Ernie Johnson signing off the program by wishing us all a happy dingus day, it really happened. So get your water guns, share your eggs and treats, and raise your cropped knick in honor of our Polish friends and dingus day. Thanks for the email, Eric. You can send me your questions at daynv at 1517.org. The last word for today comes from the daily election area in Psalm 118 starting in verse 14. The Lord is my strength and my defense. He has become my salvation.

5:16Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous. The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. The Lord's right hand has lifted high. The Lord's right hand has done mighty things. I will not die but live and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of the righteous. I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks for you answered me. You have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day. Let us rejoice today and be glad. This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 6th of April, 2026 brought to you

6:20by 1517 at 1517.org. This show is produced by a man with a small shrine to St. Hyacinth in his house, the Polish patron saint of both weightlifters and parogies. He is Christopher Gillespie. The show is written and read by a man writing the show next to a place called the Polish Nail Solon but I might be pronouncing that wrong. I'm Dan Van Voris. You can catch us here every day. And remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness and the redemption of all things are true. It's going to be okay.