Celebrate St. Urho’s Day In Little Finland
Who is St. Urho? Little Finland is in Northern Minnesota just known as Finland and celebrates St. Urho's day with a whole weekend of festivities. There's food, music, and parade, among other things.
According to the St. Urho website St. Urho was created by Richard Mattson, who worked at Ketola's Department Store in Virginia, Minnesota. Mattson came up with the Finnish version of St. Patrick in the spring of 1956. St. Patrick was credited with driving the snakes from Ireland, Saint Urho drove a plague of frogs from Finland. Some believe he got the name from Urho Kekkonen who became President of Finland in 1956, and the Finnish people loved him so that may have been the inspiration for using his name.
Gene McCavic is credited with coming up with the modern-day story in a poem written with Richard Mattson called "Ode To St. Urho". That's how the story of the frogs came about. Also According to the website, the story changed when Dr. Sulo Havumäki, a psychology professor at Bemidji State College in Bemidji MN, changed the story to a plague of grasshoppers, who were consuming the grape crop that would become wine in ancient Finland.
On St. Patrick's Day don't forget to wear your green. but on St. Urho's day wear your Green and Purple.