March 16 is a delightful made-up “holiday.” It’s St. Urho Day, fabricated in Minnesota in the mid-1950s and celebrated by Finnish-Americans. In the fantastical tale, Saint Urho drove the grasshoppers out of Finland and saved the grapes. In reality, Finland doesn’t have much of a grape industry and it still has grasshoppers. The colors for St Urho’s Day are royal purple and Nile Green.
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It’s said that March 16 was chosen to get a jump on St.
Patrick’s Day. Another story adds the colorful detail that the feat of driving
out the grasshoppers was accomplished by St. Urho’s loud yell.
A few weeks ago, while in Target with Mom, I spotted a gold-colored
resin grasshopper. It was part of a spring collection that included a bee,
dragonfly, and snail. It has sat in the living room since, and possibly
forevermore.
In honor of St. Urho’s Day, this morning a tableau was set
up with the grasshopper, the red and gold first official state flag of
independent Finland, and a province insignia patch for Vaasa, which is where my
maternal grandfather was born. I failed to plan any Finnish food and didn’t even
manage to pull the Finn coffee bread from the freezer. The half-Finn in me is
often half-assed. Or as Mummu would say, it’s the non-Finnish half that is half-assed.
Anyway, Happy St. Urho Day. Drink some wine made from the
fabled grasshopper-free grapes of Finland and enjoy the made-up holiday.
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