Saint Urho’s Day

What the day is

Saint Urho's Day is observed on March 16. It honors a fictional saint, Urho, who is said to have saved Finland's grape harvest by driving out an invasion of grasshoppers. The day began as a joke among Finnish Americans in Minnesota in the 1950s, and it has since spread through Finnish communities across the United States and Canada. Urho is not a real saint and is not recognized by any church.

The date is not chosen at random. It falls the day before the feast of Saint Patrick, who in legend drove the snakes out of Ireland, and the Finnish version is a playful answer to that celebration.

Origin and background

Two men are credited with the invention, and they disagree about who came first: Sulo Havumaki of Bemidji, Minnesota, and Richard Mattson of Virginia, Minnesota. In the legend, Urho stood up to a plague of grasshoppers that threatened the vineyards, and with a famous command in Finnish he sent them away. The joke is that Finland's climate is far too cold to grow wine grapes, which is part of the fun.

The colors of the day are royal purple, for the grapes, and Nile green, for the grasshoppers, and celebrants wear them. Menahga, Minnesota, has a tall statue of Saint Urho holding a pitchfork with a grasshopper on its tip, and it holds a festival every year. Finnish American communities hold parades, dinners and dances, and the day has even been noted in Finland.

Like many invented traditions, it also does serious work: it gives a community that has kept its heritage alive a reason to gather, eat, sing and laugh together.

How to take part

• Wear purple and green, and tell the story of Saint Urho to anyone who will listen.
• Cook a Finnish dish, such as pulla, a cardamom bread, salmon soup or a Karelian pie.
• Learn the traditional chant that Urho is said to have used, and recite it together.
• Visit a Finnish heritage museum or community hall if one is near you.
• Look up the story of Finnish immigration to the upper Midwest and the sauna tradition that came with it.