CLEVELAND — Monday is Dyngus Day, a Polish holiday that’s always celebrated the Monday after Easter.

Bob Darden was in attendance for Cleveland’s Dyngus Day celebration.

“It means a celebration of the Polish heritage and the end of Lent. Just go out and have a great time,” he said.

Cleveland’s Dyngus Day celebration has been going on for 15 years. Each year there’s a Miss Dyngus Day, and last year’s winner was Christine Przybysz.

“The role of Miss Dyngus is really to be an ambassador for the festival, so just going out, finding all the polish festivals around town and just spreading joy and fun around everywhere we go,” she said.

Hundreds of people gathered for the Dyngus Day celebration. A lot of them wore red, it represents the red on the Polish flag. Darden said he’s been coming to the festival for years and for the last few years he’s been helping get people to the festival.

“Three years ago I started getting a bus with 60 people and we’d come from the east side of Cleveland out here,” he said.

Pryzybysz said she loves to see the Polish community thriving in Cleveland.

“I grew up celebrating Dyngus Day with my family, but I always thought it was a made up festival because I didn’t know anyone else that celebrated it, so when this festival started, it was a lot of fun to come and celebrate it with the community and to spread the heritage and the tradition with a bunch of people,” she said.