Sydney Beveridge
Happy St. Urho’s Day!
by Sydney Beveridge - March 16, 2009 - 2:22 PM

st-uhro.jpgOn the day before St. Patrick’s Day, celebrate St. Urho’s Day to honor the Patron Saint of the Finnish vineyard workers.

Before the ice age, Finland’s grape crops were under attack from a pest. A man named Urho (pronounced “oorho”) fortified by sour milk and fish soup came to the hill and yelled “Heinasirkka, heinasirkka, menetaalta hiteen!” which translates to “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go away!” With a few words, Urho saved the vineyards and became a hero.

Though Urho lived in ancient times, his story emerged in the 1950s, from the imagination of Richard Matteson, a Ketola department store manager in Minnesota. According to the account in Joanne Asala’s book The Legend of St. Urho, Matteson wanted to impress his Irish coworker with a Finnish saint story, and made up the tale of how Saint Urho rescued Finland’s grape crop by driving poisonous frogs out.

Urho’s story evolved from a workplace joke to an international legend. Matteson’s coworker Gene McCavic wrote an ode in his honor in a “Finnish dialect.” In the original story, Urho rid Finland of poisonous frogs, but grasshoppers were an actual pest native to the country. Bemidji State College Professor Sulo Havumäki revised the myth to grasshoppers and helped to popularize it. His name is on the bottom of the plaque that graces the main Urho statue in Menahga, Minnesota. Every year, locals dressed as grapes and grasshoppers wearing purple and green reenact their hero’s triumph over the grasshoppers, and then they drink grape juice. Celebrations span Finnish communities around the globe,
including Ontario, Canada.

Urho’s legacy made it back to Finland with the establishment of St. Urho’s Pub in 1973. Grasshoppers have also returned.

See how they celebrate in Squaw Lake, Minnesota:

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Comments (5)

  1. AWESOME! Thanks for spreading St. Urho’s Day awareness!

    Growing up near Bemidji with Finnish heritage, I always thought SHD was just as well-known as St. Patty’s Day. My rude awakening came in high school when, upon asking several people why they weren’t adorned in festive purple for the big day, I got only blank stares.

    posted by AB on 3-16-2009 at 2:46 pm

  2. as a 4th generation Finn- yay for St. Urho’s day!
    you gotta wear purple if you’ve got sisu!
    they also celebrate st. urho’s (though less formally) in the upper penninsula of michigan. back when copper and iron mining were the main money-maker up there, a lot of Finns settled there. In Hancock, Michigan all of the street signs are in Finnish and English, and there’s a private college called Finlandia.

    no one ever talks about Finns, so I have to toot our horn a bit.

    posted by em on 3-17-2009 at 3:16 am

  3. Not wanting to spoil your party here, but I’m quite sure the name of the St. Urho’s pub refers to the legendary Finnish president Urho Kaleva Kekkonen too.

    Probably the founder of the pub heard about St. Urho’s Day and felt it hilariously resembled Urho Kaleva Kekkonen – who actually _was_ more like an omnipotent supernatural being than a president of a democratic country.

    The place is located two blocks from the Finnish parliament house, too. Another reference to Finnish politics.

    Not to mention the place’s nickname is “Urkki” which was also UKK’s nickname.

    (Click the sig for the pub’s home page.)

    posted by jabsonik on 3-17-2009 at 5:10 am

  4. Maybe the state of Minnesota should make St. Urho’s Day a state holiday together with St. Patrick’s day. Even though St. Urho is a little fictional. I have a few questions:

    1. Is St. Urho really real & what denomination is he???

    2. Do state governments in the US have the power to institute state holidays??? You know like when, for example, Wisconsin made June 14 their state holiday & everyone doesn’t have to go to school or work.

    posted by Karl on 3-17-2009 at 5:29 am

  5. Criminy, I just told someone Happy St. Urho’s day and they didn’t know what it was. So don’t worry AB, you’re not the only one. I didn’t realize how localized it was, also I thought it was a Norwegian thing. Oops. Now that I know it’s an overgrown inside joke, it’s even better.

    posted by Erin on 3-17-2009 at 10:09 am

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