As the feast days of saints go, there are a good many that go unnoticed these days, but St. Patrick’s Day is not one of them. Sacred to Ireland and a great cause for celebration both in Ireland and the United States, it is said that on St. Patrick’s Day everyone is at least a little Irish.
But that’s tomorrow. Today, everyone might be considered at least a little Finnish. At least the Finns of Minnesota and the Finns of Lake Worth and Lantana think so. It is St. Urho’s Day, Finland’s answer to the more popular saint that is celebrated on the 17th of March with the wearing o’ the green. For St. Urho’s Day, it is the wearing o’ the purple and green that is most important, for legend has it that St. Urho drove all the grasshoppers out of Finland, saving the precious grape crop (and therefore Finland’s vineyards) from sure destruction. The purple and the green represent that important Finnish commodity.
Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen are the words St. Urho spoke to drive the grasshoppers from Finland. In English, this translates to “Grasshopper, grasshopper, go to Hell!” And there you go. Job done.
If this all sounds too ridiculous to be true, you may be right. Then again, who knows? The Finns who gather at the Finnish bakery in Lantana to drink strong coffee and eat pulla and heavenly Nordic open face sandwiches that begin with a slice of Finnish rye bread, spread with homemade mayonnaise, topped with sliced hard boiled eggs and smoked salmon and sprigs of fresh dill… well, they are not saying for sure what is true and what is not. And perhaps they don’t even know. But they’ll see you coming and they might say Tervetuloa as you approach and today, perhaps, they are dressed in purple and green in honor of the man who drove the grasshoppers from their homeland.
Image: This statue of St. Urho stands in Menagha in central Minnesota. They have lots of Finns there, too.
Another great story, yet you still refuse to reveal the location of this mysterious Finnish bakery!!! Is it a secret?
You make the foods sound so delectable that I want to go there…you should be their official PR man.
No secret at all! I’m pretty sure it’s called Palm Beach Bakery (though we always just refer to it as “The Finnish Bakery”). It’s located just off of East Ocean Avenue, one block west of Dixie Highway, in Lantana. I just had one of those open face smoked salmon sandwiches this morning. A second breakfast, of sorts.