Buffalo tradition missing pussy willows

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/20080313/ap_tr_ge/travel_brief_dyngus_day_pussy_willows;_ylt=AkqXVJPRNetT0V7y3CXzspus0NUE

Buffalo tradition missing pussy willows

By CAROLYN THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 13, 9:39 AM ET

BUFFALO, N.Y. - For Buffalo's Polish-Americans, love blooms with the pussy willows on Dyngus Day: Tradition has boys splashing girls with water and the girls swatting boys with branches of the fuzzy buds.

But a case of pussy willow panic is brewing.

That's because the day-after-Easter holiday arrives early this year — March 24, and after an unrelenting winter, the pussy willow bushes are still bare.

...

"Couldn't celebrants use some other kind of branch? Dobosiewicz, a co-founder of DyngusDayBuffalo.com was asked.

"It would be like Groundhog Day without the groundhog," he said, "like replacing the groundhog with a monkey."

"