St. Urho's Day

Did you all wear your pretty purple today for St Urho's day? I did. But then again, it's not hard for me to wear purple seeing it's one of my favorite colors.

I was in my mid 20's when, they had "wear purple" day at work. I wondered, why purple? It was as if I was supposed to know about St Urho Day as if it were Christmas.

So, what is St Urho Day? Why do we wear purple?

The legend of St. Urho goes that a long time ago in Finland the grape crop was being destroyed by grasshoppers. Urho drove away the grasshoppers using his booming voice by chanting "Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen!", which translates to "Grasshopper, grasshopper, go from hence to Hell!"

St. Urho's day is celebrated on March 16th by wearing royal purple and Nile green, drinking beer (even green and purple beer) and wine, and feasting on mojakka, which is basically just soup. The plaque below this St. Urho statue even describes a celebration where Finnish women and children gather around the shores of the many lakes in Finland and chant what St. Urho chanted. All the while, the men dress in green costumes and gather on the hills overlooking the lakes and, basically, act like grasshoppers and slowly disappear to change into purple costumes. Then the polka and drinking begins.

I dunno about you, but I wear purple because I like the color. I do not like beer, and the thought of dyed beer sickens me. Grasshoppers scare me. Well, not when they are just sitting around. If I walk into the woods or a field & those buggers start boinging around, you are absolutely, positively going to hear my screech. The thought of grown men acting like grasshoppers kinda freaks me out too. I do like the purple though...and green.

Did you celebrate St Urho's Day today?