St. Urho's Tay — Wednesday, March 16

It's that time of year again when Americans with Finnish roots celebrate Urho's miraculous rescue of the grape crop. The words he uttered: “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, Mene taalta hiiten!” (Grasshopper, grasshopper, go home!) so alarmed the little critters that they all disappeared. 

You might practice saying the words — you never know when something like that will come in handy. For sure, dig out your purple and green clothing to wear on St. Urho's Tay, interestingly timed one day before another fun March celebration. 

Lots of ways to celebrate:

Beforehand: A Grasshopper Hop in Crosslake, Minnesota—March 5. So we missed that. 

Finland, Minnesota, kicks of festivities this weekend, March 11-13, their 41^st annual event: a Miss Helmi talent and beauty contest, food, music, parade!

 

On the actual day, March 17, the day is commemorated by folks in Butte, Montana, (crowning of St. and Miss Urho, live music and bag pipers) and in Donna, Texas (dinner).

Menahga, Minnesota, celebrates March 18-20 by crowning their own St. Urho King and Queen, a magician/comedian, pancake breakfast, horse drawn wagon rides, mojakka feed, the changing of the guards, St. Urho’s Day parade, bar stool races on Spirit Lake and live music. And on Sunday, enjoy the Blueberry Pines snow sculpture contest (if snow remains).

In Finlayson, Minnesota, on March 19, you can enjoy a parade, various tournaments for volleyball, basketball and cribbage, a pancake breakfast, antique snowmobile show, kid games, a medallion hunt.

Squaw Lake, Minnesota, also celebrates March 19. 

If nothing else, kick back and appreciate a nice glass of wine.

Nikki

Would Grandpa Ivar approve?

Finally I got new sauna rocks. I purchased them instead of scavenging river beds and lake shores.

That's the first thing Grandpa Ivar would probably disagree with. I can almost hear him cluck at such foolish economy, “Outside they are free. And you can pick the best ones.”

Actually they were hard even to purchase locally. My “sauna store” no longer exists and its replacement no longer handles saunas. I thought I might save the shipping cost of rocks by picking them up in town. Turns out the shipping cost is always included somewhere.

The store was somewhat willing to make a prepaid order — I just had to decide how many pounds I wanted. I opted for the larger size — 23 kilograms (50.7 pounds; it felt like more!), though I don't “need” that many. Yet. Down the road, I probably will. I only hope they are still “fresh*” when the time comes.

For my 1/40^th ton of rocks, I paid about $100. Grandpa Ivar would also take issue with this — “How much?!?”

And they are probably the “wrong” kind of rocks for him. In all the traditional saunas I've visited, rounded granite rocks are most favored. They're easiest to find. What I bought was quarried vulcanite.

Last year I learned that quarried rocks are fresher* because they have been in the ground longer. Compare that to granite stones which have been tumbled for thousands of years above ground, drying them out. And rough quarried rocks have more edges — inlets and outlets — for the heat to radiate from.

Besides Finnish, English and Russian, I'm not sure what the other languages are on the box. Where else would they be exporting sauna stones??

My next project will be to remove the crumbling — and overused — stones from the stove. 

Nikki

A "new" sauna scent

This summer I was shopping at Bergquist Import, a delightful store in Cloquet, Minnesota, chock-full of Northern European treats, Scandinavian and Finnish among them. Of course I loaded up. 

Among the products they featured were scents, and I found “cedar.”Why, you ask, am I interested in buying a scent for my löyly when I could just as easily use cedar boughs? 

It's not easy for me to find cedar. We only have Russian cypress and spruce in the yard, but they don't produce the kind of boughs I need (nor willow nor maple). I'd have to scavenge in the woods, but first I'd need to get permission to cut. 

When the sauna was new, I could smell the cedar (out of which it was built), every time I walked in the porch. But that's long gone. 

And a dear friend had given me a trio of citrus scents when she visited a German spa. But they, too, are long gone.

The bottle of scent is a treat—I not only smell it while I sauna, when sprinkling a few drops of the cedar scent in the dipper of water for the rocks, but it also scents the porch. I inhale that fresh tree aroma each time I walk past the sauna.

Back to Bergquist's, there were other scents I might have purchased. I plan to stock up next visit.

Nikki

An emoji for "Eating one too many Joulutorttu"

Recently I learned that Finland has produced emojis that explain, and subtly poke fun at, themselves. In fact they are the only country to do so, and made about 30 emojis to explain some of the unique but hard-to-describe customs.
 
This emoji, for Dec. 18 is a joulutorttu, a Christmas pastry. (It looks like ones we ate, not knowing which ethnic group should get the credit.) 

This emoji of the joulutorttu is meant to exemplify "the feeling of having (eaten) one too many." 
 
According to the website This is Finland  "Every year you burn your mouth on the first one – beware of the plum jam in the middle! The sweet taste and nostalgia make up for it."

After stocking up at two church bake sales featuring Scandinavian treats and a cookie exchange at work, I understand the feeling. I have eaten more than one too many!

Nikki

Hyvaa Joulua

It's time to wish my friends a Merry Christmas, Finnish-style. What fun words to pronounce.

A Finnish cousin sent an email a few days ago, noting that the greetings were coming from where Santa Claus lives. 

The header said "Santa Claus has left the Korvatunturi." Thanks to Google and Wikipedia, I now know that "Korvatunturi" is a fell in Lapland, located in the Urho Kekkonen National Park, featuring thick pine forests, frozen lakes and gazillions of reindeer. So Santa would have the best reindeer to choose from, and alternates in case one of their antlers stops picking up the signals properly.

I also wanted to revisit the Christmas peace, joulurauha, a tradition I learned about last year.

Declaring a Christmas peace goes back to the 13th century. Once this tradition was common to all the Nordic countries, but only in Finland has it been maintained, almost uninterruptedly, to this day.

A special ceremony is held in Turku, Finland, to declare a period of Christmas peace. It begins at noon on Christmas Eve and lasts for 20 days. 

May this year's joulurauha last much longer and be world-wide. 

Nikki

 

Bronze Age sauna unearthed on the Orkneys

Imagine a sauna 6,000 years old, now being excavated. Because the ones we most often think of are wooden, it's hard to conceive of a sauna surviving a single century, not to mention 60 centuries.

But steam bathing was used world-wide over the years, for a variety of needs — body cleansing and mind-purification among them. With their understanding of wood and fire, it's natural that they would consider building a sauna with stone. For one thing, the heat would last much much longer.

An archaeological dig in the Orkney Islands of Scotland has unearthed network of buildings. With a water-holding area and places for fires, steam could be created. Why?
Here's the text (for the pictures, click the link):

“The fact that tap water was thousands of years away from being invented didn't stop ancient people who wanted a good soak in a steam bath. Archaeologists studying the Links of Noltland in Scotland's Orkney islands believe they have found a 6,000-year-old sauna, complete with a water tank, The National reports.

“The sauna is one of 30 buildings investigators are hastening to uncover and learn more about before the site potentially succumbs to erosion. Thankfully, the sauna remains remarkably intact, allowing researchers a glimpse into the lives of the people who lived at the site between 4,000 and 1,000 B.C.

“ 'We know this was a large building, with a complex network of cells attached to it and a sizeable tank of water in the central structure, which would likely have been used to produce boiling water and steam, which would have been used to create a sauna effect,' Rod McCullagh, the deputy head of archaeology strategy at Historic Scotland, told The National.

“He added that 'What this would have been used for we don't know exactly, but the large-scale, elaborate architecture and sophistication of the structure all suggest that it was used for more than just cooking.'

“The sauna could have been used in rituals, for example, or for healing and hygiene. Likewise, it could have been a place for women to give birth, or for elderly people to use while dying, or perhaps it functioned as a room to prepare the dead for burial. Then again, ancient people might simply have used it for a good ol' soak.” Jeva Lange

For this news, I thank my friend Barry Radin, who kept me abreast of this interesting development about the sauna.

Nikki

The Beatles and the sauna

The Beatles tried a sauna?? You're kidding?

The anniversary of this important sauna event occurred Aug. 21. But, because we were traveling, I missed doing anything about it. Here is the note I received from Joe Young:

“Fifty years ago today the Beatles made their only appearance in Minnesota, at a concert Aug. 21, 1965, at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington (now the site of the Mall of America). Ray Crump, equipment manager for the Minnesota Twins (Met Stadium’s baseball tenants who would next month clinch the American League Pennant, but then lose to the Dodgers in the World Series), was charged with the task of squiring the mop-topped lads around the stadium clubhouse, Ray’s bailiwick, before the concert. At one point he asked them if they wanted to relax pre-performance with a sauna. They did.”

It was the Beatles' first sauna ever! KARE-11 interviewed Ray Crump about his memories of the day, which included his taking pictures with them.

Interestingly, though they were young kids from Liverpool, they knew of Harmon Killebrew and wanted to know which locker was his.

Thanks to my friend Joe, we will now be able to nail the answer when — in some bar bet or trivia contest — we are asked, “Where did the Beatles enjoy their first sauna?”

By the way Joe Young has the most amazing puzzle blog, www.puzzleria.blogspot.com. Each week he swaps a “pizza puzzle menu” of appetizers and main slices. I've never got a single one, but they're still amazing.

This is #1 in a series of famous people in the sauna.

 Nikki