The Polish Easter Monday tradition in which boys sprinkle girls with water is called Śmigus-dyngus.
Also known as Dyngus Day or Wet Monday, Śmigus-dyngus is celebrated across Poland on the Monday after Easter. Traditional customs involve boys dousing girls with water, sometimes using buckets, water pistols, or other containers. In some regions, boys also tap girls with pussy-willow branches blessed on Palm Sunday.
The practice has several proposed explanations. It is often linked symbolically with baptism and the Christianisation of Poland, while other interpretations connect water with spring, cleansing, fertility, and the end of Lent. Historically, “śmigus” and “dyngus” were separate customs involving symbolic whipping, water, gifts, and ransom-like exchanges before merging.
The alternative answers are related but belong to neighbouring traditions: locsolkodás is the Hungarian form, while oblievačka is associated with Slovakia. Pomlázka refers particularly to the Czech and Slovak braided willow-switch custom, not the Polish name for the whole celebration.