Why were a couple hundred people, dressed in red and white, walking around Saint Clair Monday afternoon holding pussy willows, wielding squirt guns, and listening to polkas?
It was Dyngus Day.
Dyngus Day is a centuries-old Easter Monday tradition with Polish roots and over time, numerous interpretations of the holiday have taken hold. In Saint Clair, the holiday has taken the form of a bar crawl and in 2026, it was the biggest Dyngus Day yet.
In Poland, Dyngus Day is now often celebrated by guys drenching girls they like in water and sometimes hitting them with pussy willows. The Saint Clair version borrows those traditions by incorporating squirt guns. Pussy willows were sold as a fundraiser for Saint Clair Historical Society.
Bernie McCord tells The Canary that she and a couple friends started celebrating Dyngus Day 12 years ago. It was just a small group that grew slowly over time.
“It’s just a way to have a good time,” she says.
However, this year, the party grew faster than anticipated. And by 4 o’clock Monday afternoon, people were packed into two Saint Clair area bars to listen to polka bands, nosh Polish, and drink some beer.
The Swingmasters entertained the Dyngus Day crowd at Old Buckhorn Cafe while Joe Stanky & His Cadets performed at The Dead Canary. Other locations in Saint Clair that participated in the bar crawl were The Sandcastle, Tommy’s M&S, Top Dogs, and Chankir.
The goal for Dyngus Day locally is for it to grow each year now, according to “Cousin Dave” Cantwell.
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