Small Minnesota town honors the legend of St. Urho with unique yearly celebration

MENAGHA, Minn. — You've heard of St. Patrick driving the snakes out of Ireland, but how about St. Urho driving the grasshoppers out of Finland?

"Ooksie, gooksie, coolama vee. St. Urho is the boy for me," said Janis Hillstrom.

Hillstrom is reciting a poem written in Finglish — a combination of Finnish and English.

"Some celebrate for St. Pat and his snakes. But Urho, boy, has got what it takes," Hillstrom said.

The poem is in honor of the fellow standing just off of Highway 71 in Menagha. He's described as broad-shouldered and strong, and he hates bugs.

As the legend goes, Finland was known for its wild grape crop that produced delicious wines. But giant grasshoppers became a threat — that's when St. Urho stepped in with his mighty trident and told the bugs to scatter or be skewered. 

"What it says is St. Urho is telling these grasshoppers to get out and go away," said Menagha Mayor Liz Olson.

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About 40 years ago, Finnish folks in Menagha decided to celebrate St. Urho's Day on March 16, the day before St. Patrick's Day. The color green is included in this holiday as well, but so is purple.

"Purple identifies the grapes. Green is the grasshoppers that St. Urho chased away to save those grapes," Olson said.

During the festival, they have a parade, a king and queen coronation, bar stool races and something called the "changing of the guard." It honors a group of Menagha residents who've kept watch over St. Urho.

"And they take off all their clothing, throw it in a pile and everybody picks whatever up and puts it back on and it's just kind of to honor St. Urho," Olson said. 

From there, the party's on. Like Olson, many of the townspeople wear traditional Finnish costumes to honor the grasshopper terminator.

The historical society will tell you that it's not all about the Fins — people here love all kinds of traditions — but when someone saves a wine crop with strong words and a trident, that's cause for celebration.

"St. Urho is really fun. The community gets behind it. Have a little parade. It takes one square block, it's the smallest parade around," said Gloria Markkula with the Menagha Area Historical Society.