Friday, March 16, 2012

HAPPY ST. URHO'S DAY!

And I'll bet there are very few of you who know who St. Urho is!  According to my sources, this is the story:

The legend of St. Urho originated in Northern Minnesota in the 1950s. However, there are differing opinions as to whether it began with the fables created by Sulo Havumaki of Bemidji, or the tongue-in-cheek tales told by Richard Mattson of Virginia. Either way, the legend has grown among North Americans of Finnish descent to the point where St. Urho is known and celebrated across the United States and Canada, and even in Finland.

St. Urho's Day is celebrated on March 16th, the day prior to the better known feast of some minor saint from Ireland, who was alleged to have driven the snakes from that island.

The legend of St. Urho says he chased the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland, thus saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard workers. He did this by uttering the phrase: "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen" (roughly translated: "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell!"). His feast is celebrated by wearing the colors Royal Purple and Nile Green. St. Urho is nearly always represented with grapes and grasshoppers as part of the picture.

And now you know the rest of the story.

This educational moment is coming to you from Minnesota, where the temperature outside this afternoon hit 80 degrees, and our little greenhouse was sweltering in 104 degree heat.  Maybe this story is all nonsense, caused by fried brains!  But I doubt it.  I believe in St. Urho.  And I don't have a single drop of Finish blood.

5 comments:

Karen O said...

This cracked me up. We like saying certain things came from Minnesota, don't we? Thank you for the laugh.

L'Adelaide said...

ha...laughed so hard, woke hubbie. ;) this is so funny and so skandie, i love the grasshopper go to hell thing AND that bug on the big fork-perfection-i am married into a norsk/dane family...oh my..........haha...funny...giggles...

i have a new post on a ...wait for it....NEW WEBSITE I MADE! it is here:

http://watercolorcandy.com/

and i just posted my second post to it....it's challenging but i'm enjoying learning how to be independent of blogger, etc. please come by and see me...still lonely over in my new place, things take time and i was at blogger for 4years so....i am feeling lonely. xoxoxo

Debbie said...

Oh this is cute, Marge!!

Love it :)

Denise said...

I love this! So funny. And no, I'd never heard of St. Urho before!

theMom said...

We drive past the statue of St. Urho in Menagha each time we head to destinations in "the south." I didn't know the legend was recent. I guess I messed that part of the saint's illustrious history.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11468