The Wearing’ of the Green (and purple)
It’s March—that
time of year, again when people eat corn beef and cabbage, drink green beer, wear
something green, and celebrate a saint. Any excuse for a party, right? Well,
not for the Finns who, as is well known, are of a reserved nature. Fortunately,
for them, celebrating St. Urho Day on March 16th doesn’t require
much in the way of revelry.
People
became reacquainted with St. Urho in the 1950s although opinions differ on
whether he grew out of tales told by one Sulo Havumaki of Bemidji, MN, or from
the whimsical stories told by Richard Mattson
of Virginia.
According
to a man named William Reid, Sulo was feeling bad because there were no Finnish
saints. The Reid family had relatives going to Finland and William’s father
“got some very old pieces of old human bones and wood and gave them to the
relatives to take to with them along with a letter and the following
instructions:
(1) Find a recent
obituary in a Finnish newspaper.
(2) Have the letter
translated into Finnish and insert the deceased's name.
(3) Mail the letter to
Sulo Havumaki by air, and send the bones and wood to Sulo by sea.” In time,
Sulo
received both and held on to them until Reid senior finally fessed up when Sulo
was terminally ill with cancer.
However, Mattson’s
son says “his father, a fun-loving Finnish-America and employee of Virginia’s Ketola’s
Department Store, created the saint, after which female employees threw a St.
Urho party in the store’s lunchroom and a woman read a poem she’d written. The
local newspaper ran an article about the event and, Bob’s Your Uncle, a legend
was born. Either way, St. Urho’s legend has grown to where he is celebrated
across the United States and Canada and even in Finland. His claim to
fame: he chased the grasshoppers out of
ancient Finland, thus saving the grape crop and the jobs of Finnish vineyard
workers. Contemporary wine drinkers are well aware of the quality of Finnish
grapes and wine.
Thirty-five
years ago, Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson issued a proclamation naming
Minnesota as Saint Urho’s unofficial home. And the saint has been recognized
with proclamations in all 50 states. So wear your green but add Urho purple,
make a Kalakukko
(fish pie), and give thanks to the saint for Finland’s amazing
vineyards. On March 16th, everyone’s Finnish.
