I took a day off work for a new experience: Dyngus Day.
If you’d have asked me a month ago what Dyngus Day was, I probably would have guessed it involved food (correct) and maybe some kind of parade (also correct). What I didn’t expect was just how big it is, especially in Buffalo, which hosts one of the largest Dyngus Day celebrations in the world.
The holiday itself comes from Poland, is celebrated on Easter Monday, and has roots in both Catholic tradition and older spring rituals.
At its core, it’s about renewal, celebration, and, somewhat unexpectedly… water. Historically, boys would splash girls with water as a form of flirtation. Today, that tradition lives on in a much more chaotic form: grown adults with Super Soakers.
And yes, it was as cold as you’re imagining.
The Broadway Market, Food, and a Butter Lamb
We started the afternoon at the Broadway Market, which I had actually visited a few weeks earlier, before Easter. That’s when I bought my first butter lamb, a small, lamb-shaped sculpture made entirely of butter, symbolizing Jesus as the “Lamb of God” and the idea of new life.
The market itself dates back to the late 1800s and sits in Buffalo’s East Side, an area shaped by Polish immigrants. Around Easter and Dyngus Day, it becomes the place to be.
This time, I went all in: kielbasa with purple cabbage, pierogis… and later, somehow, another sausage—this one smoked, topped with sauerkraut. No regrets.
The Parade (and the Water Situation)
After eating, we headed out to find a spot for the parade and ended up right at the start.
It was exactly what you’d want from something like this: floats, trucks, dancers in traditional Polish dress, music, and a crowd dressed almost entirely in red, laughing and cheering like they’d been waiting all year for this.
And then there were the squirt guns. Some people in the parade skipped on squirt guns entirely and just had pitchers they dipped in large coolers full of water to throw into the crowd.
I stayed toward the back of the crowd because, while I respect tradition, I also respect not getting soaked in early-April temperatures.
Still, it was impossible not to appreciate the energy. It felt less like watching a parade and more like being dropped into the middle of something alive.
Polish Music and Beer
After the parade, we went to a bar that served Polish beer and had a live Polish band playing. It was crowded, loud, and joyful. It’s important to note that the band was indeed playing American cover songs, because, well… why wouldn’t they? But they were great!
The Part That Stayed With Me
When I was at the Broadway Market a few weeks prior, I walked around the neighborhood a bit. Not far from there, there’s a mural with lyrics from Iris, a nod to Goo Goo Dolls’ frontman John Rzeznik, who grew up nearby.
The band’s song, “Broadway,” is about that exact area, about the contradictions of it. Churches on one corner, bars across the street. Hope and hardship sit side by side.
And you can still feel that.
It’s a neighborhood with deep cultural roots, but also visible signs of struggle. It’s the kind of place that tells two stories at once.
Later that night, I was talking about all of this with someone I had just met, and he joked, “What are you, like, obsessed with the Goo Goo Dolls?”
Not really.
But I am interested in understanding the places I’m in. That’s part of what makes moving somewhere new exciting: the chance to learn its history, to notice the layers, to connect the dots between the past and what’s right in front of you.
Music has always been a way into that for me. And I think there’s something especially powerful about artists who come from places that are complicated; places that might have been difficult, but also shaped who they became.
Final Thoughts
Dyngus Day was fun, loud, cold, a little chaotic, and completely unique.
I’m really grateful to my friend and neighbor Marcus for taking me, and to all the people I met along the way.
It felt like stepping into a tradition that’s still very much alive and seeing a side of Buffalo I might not have otherwise.
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