The Legend of St. Urho
New Condition
Laugh away winter blues with St. Urho and the grasshoppers in this book. This half-century old tale of St. Urho continues into the 21st century to delight new devotees. Created in Minnesota by Finnish-Americans Sulo Havumaki and Richard Mattson, St. Urho burst first forth bigger than life in 1956. His fame comes for the ancient heroic deed of driving the grasshoppers out of old Finland to save the grape crop. The Saints day is celebrated March 16, a day before another that other legend, St. Patrick who drove the snakes out of Ireland. Sandy Hautanen of Boston has an essay in the book about The Battle of the Saints and her experiences as a Finnish-American in the midst of the Irish.
Prof. Börje Vähämaki of Toronto, Canada, in a tongue- in -cheek scholarly, essay compares the Finnish saint and the Irish saint. He notes particular interest in the relationship between the St. Urho legend and the St. Patrick tradition, and correspondingly between Finnish and Irish immigrants to North America with the shared colors of green and purple. He writes, that both patron saints chased evil creatures out of their respective lands...It is quite possible that Matti Kaups is correct when he writes (Finnish Americana, 1986): . . . it seems that Finnish ancestry, exposure to the legend of St. Patrick, and residence in the land of such giants as Paul Bunyan and Babe, influenced the inner thoughts and motivated men to perpetuate the anachronistic farce of St. Urho.
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