Are you in the mood to celebrate a chapter of local cultural history in Buffalo? Be sure to attend the 4th annual Dyngus Day Parade on April 5 at 5pm. The parade will march through Buffalo's historic Polonia district, with over 100 parade entrants and 40,000 onlookers expected to be there. Social groups, bands, dancers, and other performers will participate in this festival that celebrates Easter Sunday and the end of Lent.

This area of Buffalo includes typical locations for Dyngus Day celebrations such as Polonia Hall, the Buffalo Central Terminal, St. Stanislaus Church, and the Adam Mickewicz Library and Dramatic Circle. The group sponsoring the event, Dyngus Day Buffalo, is also responsible for coordinating more than 25 specific city sites where the holiday is celebrated. According to them, events such as these have made Buffalo the world's Dyngus Day capital.

The traditionally Polish-American holiday falls on the Monday after Easter each year, and celebrates the end of the Lenten season and the restrictions that it places on Christians. Buffalonians have celebrated Dyngus Day since the first Polish immigrants arrived in the 1870s, but the Chopin's Singing Society held the first modern, organized Dyngus Day celebration 49 years ago. The tradition has been going strong ever since.

Bernadette Pawlak, the parade organizer for the Dyngus Day parade, also organized last year's event. She has high hopes for this festival that Buffalonians look forward to all year round.

"What we initially believed would be a small, roughly thrown-together celebration is growing into a major event," Pawlak reflected. "Although Dyngus Day is traditionally a celebration of Polish pride, we are encouraging the parade participants to become a tribute to Buffalo's diverse heritage."

According to Pawlak, this year's parade will consist of three separate divisions of entrants. For the first time in its four year history, the parade's organizers will give out themed awards to participants. She said that as the parade grows each year, so do the amount of people who come out to watch the performers pass by, as well as the hopes for a bigger and better parade and holiday celebration in general each year.

"We find that people of all nationalities come from across Western New York, Southern Ontario, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Often individuals take time off from work and their busy schedules just to attend. It is quickly becoming that popular," Pawlak said. "My ultimate goal is to make Dyngus Day in Buffalo the equivalent to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One would go to New Orleans before lent and Buffalo after!"

If you or your group would like to appear in the parade, be sure to fill out an application form anytime before 5pm on April 1, 2010. If you have any further questions about the parade, its history, or anything else about it, contact Bernadette Pawlak by phone (716) 812-3342 or by email.