THUNDER BAY — The legend of St. Urho goes way back to a time when grasshoppers were eating grape crops, resulting in the Finns being unable to drink their Finnish wine.
Of course, St. Urho drove all of the grasshoppers out, which calls for celebration.
“It was originally made somewhere in northern Minnesota as a friendly rivalry between the Irish immigrants who are celebrating St. Patrick's Day and the many Finnish immigrants who settled in North Minnesota and in the Thunder Bay area,” said Jake Guggenheimer.
Guggenheimer is head of the events committee and the secretary on the executive board at the Finlandia Co-operative, but most importantly was St. Urho for the day.
“It's a great honour. (I was) essentially in charge of the party, for at least the first bit and I got to keep the chant going.
“There's a Finnish chant that says, translated roughly, grasshoppers, grasshoppers, get away from here.”
The day consisted of a parade starting from Bay Credit Union, chanting all the way to Prince Arthur Hotel with rakes and signs. At the Prince Arthur Hotel there was entertainment that continued until 4 p.m.
There was a cricket bar with four separate flavours including sweet, savoury and regular.
“I'm going to say there was at least 50 people in the parade. We had people joining as we were walking. The halfway point was Bay Village Coffee, I know people joined us there and a little closer on Cumberland Street.
“When we got here there was even more people. Half the room was full. We have 300 buttons made which are the tickets and we're going through them. We're expecting a decent turnout.
“It's already pretty great here and we've still got most of the day left,” Guggenheimer said.
Anywhere from 200 to 300 people will have joined in some part of the day, he said.
The festivities have been going on in Thunder Bay for 43 years, but had to take a pause during the pandemic.
“Last year, in 2024, we came back. The Prince Arthur Hotel was excited to have us here since we didn't have a real spot to celebrate since 2021. It's been great, we loved it last year, so we came back here again and hopefully there's many more in our future.
“We're almost at that 45 mark, so a few more years and then we'll be at 45 years of St. Urho,” Guggenheimer said.
