Seriously Buffalo? If there was ever a time where you could show your character by taking something in stride, this would be it. Anderson Cooper proved only one thing last night, that his laugh resembles that of my 3 year old niece. As for the implications of his laughter, I feel it's important to delve a little bit into this very serious holiday.
I'm mostly of Irish descent, but the rest of me is Slovak. Were you aware that Dyngus Day is not strictly a Polish holiday? In Slovakia, veľkonočný pondelok is celebrated every year, just like it is in Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. The origin of the water stems from the act of baptism, as the day remembers when Poland converted to Christianity, signified by the baptism of Polish Prince Mieszko I in 966 A.D. Somewhere along the line, the tradition developed into tossing buckets of water onto girls while they lay in their beds and whacking them in the legs with pussy willows. The gesture is meant to be a romantic one, and in the interests of gender equality, girls were eventually included in the fun.
And that's just what it is: fun. It's a great way to cut loose after the long, arduous religious observance of Lent (which I'm sure every Buffalonian participates in with reverence). Cooper wasn't reacting to the muted, religious origins of the holiday, he was reacting to the silly nature of it's current incarnation. Based on this, his reaction is understandable. Squirting girls with water IS silly, as any 3 year old can tell you, so why must Buffalo insist that Anderson Cooper is being condescending? The only thing more embarrassing than his reaction (which is really only embarrassing for him) is a straight faced Buffalonian insisting that this is all SERIOUS BUSINESS. You don't see the Irish in Buffalo reacting this way when people of all ethnicities turn the city into a drunken frat party on St. Patrick's Day, despite the fact that it's also a religious holiday commemorating the arrival of Christianity. Why then, does the Polish population of Buffalo insist that a day spent running rampant through the neighborhood it abandoned with squirt guns and pussy willows has to be taken seriously?
My point is, if you are angered by Cooper's entirely appropriate reaction to a holiday that defines silliness, you have no one to blame but yourselves.
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