Our Easter traditions: "Drenching Monday" (04/11/99)

Our Easter traditions: "Drenching Monday"

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

From the prehistoric, to the ancient, to the traditional, to the modern, to the virtual! Except for the last, if you were a young eligible woman, you would be drenched on Easter Monday - Oblyvanyi Ponedilok (Drenching Monday).

In Ukrainian tradition, we have progressed from pushing people into the river or lake to get them soaking wet, to drenching them with buckets of water, to water pistols (memories of St. John the Baptist in Newark, N.J., more than a few decades ago), to "SuperSoakers" (Plast youths in Winnipeg). And now, the latest: the virtual splash sent out into cyberspace by G. L. (Hryts') Naciuk of Calgary.

Water and fire are two forces that have been used in rituals since time immemorial. The blessing with holy water and candles in church are two reminders of how important these have always been in all kinds of rituals. Water symbolizes many things: the fountain of life, for humans, animals and all aspects of nature; a force of nature to be both worshiped and feared; cleansing, purity and truth; health and strength ("Bud zdorovyi yak voda" - Be as healthy as the water); the force of motion; danger (fast water); time ("Vchorashnoyi vody ne dozhenesh" - You cannot catch up to yesterday's water); persistence ("Tykha voda berehy lomyt" - Quiet water breaks down the riverbanks).

But most importantly, especially for Easter Monday, water symbolizes love, courting, marriage and a young woman.

The day after Easter Sunday is called Oblyvanyi (drenching) or Volochebnyi or Volochivnyi (Wandering) Monday. This is the day when the young men pour water on the young women, especially on their sweethearts. Some "divchata" or "divky" (young eligible women) were even drenched through the windows of their house. No one slept late that morning, for fear that the bed also would be drenched. As noted by Hryhory Luzhnytsky, even in the cities this custom was popular, to the extent that people emptied their rooms of furniture, in order to avoid water damage.

And, this was an equal opportunity tradition, because on Easter Tuesday, "Oblyvanyi Vivtorok," the young women drenched the young men. Luzhnytsky observed that the ritual should have been called "bathing" instead of drenching, because originally, beginning in the early morning, young people dragged each other into the streams, ponds and rivers in the village. Any water vessel would do, whether being thrown into a trough, or drenched by any means (with buckets, etc.). One indication that this was a courting ritual is that married women were not drenched. In addition to the romantic connotation, the water drenching was to bring health and happiness, and to encourage rainfall.

The Hutsuly (Carpathian mountaineers) did not drench each other because, as Volodymyr Shukhevych observed in his work "Hutsulschyna," Hutsul clothing is very fine and expensive, and would truly suffer from a soaking.

Their Easter Monday was called Volochivnyi Ponedilok because the "leginy" (young men) went house to house collecting pysanky. They received these from girls with whom they danced at the vechornytsi (dance parties) during the year. Each girl was obligated to give her dancing partner a pysanka when he came to the door. She then invited him in for food and drink.

In some areas, only a young woman who did not give a pysanka could be drenched. On the village streets, the young men exchanged pysanky among themselves, wishing each other, "Pomozhy nam, Hospody, abykh si vydily tak na tim sviti, yak si tut vydymo" (Help us, Lord, that we may see each other in the next world, the way we see each other here).

When enough people gathered in a house, partying began, with music. In the afternoon, the young people gathered outdoors, with girls bringing food and the boys something stronger to drink. This was the day when the young men started seriously observing the home (obzoryny) where a young woman lived, to see if she was a good homemaker (hospodynia).

This soaking is one tradition teenagers enjoy, especially with modern paraphernalia such as the monster SuperSoakers and hoses. In Winnipeg, at the Plast headquarters, this is an eagerly awaited day - not many other traditions are as eagerly observed as this one.

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