Happy St. Urho’s Patrick’s Day
Actually St. Urho’s Day was yesterday. I do not celebrate St. Urho’s Day. That’s a Finnish holiday. I don’t really celebrate St. Patrick’s Day either except that sometimes I have to dredge Froooogy outta the londry baskit the next morning and try to dry him out. But that’s not really celebrating.
I am [allegedly] Irish. I am not [that I know of] Finnish but it’s entirely possible that I have some kind of Scandahoovian blood in me from back in the days when the British Isles were mixing it up with the Baltic Peninsula, way before reliable records were kept, not that record-keeping has necessarily been reliable since then.
The thing is I never knew anything about St. Urho’s Day until facebook came along. Friends of mine who ARE Finnish celebrate St. Urho’s Day on March 16. Which is A-OK! What got to me is that other folks started wishing meeee happy St. Urho’s Day. Um, nope. I am not Finnish. Yes I have blonde hair and blue eyes and my last name begins with “Fin”. So what?
The GG and a beach urchin are downtown watching a show at The Ark tonight. There was much discussion about whether/where to eat. We all figured that on St. Pat’s day the downtown restaurants (especially Conor O’Neill’s) would be slammed with Irishmen from any and all countries. Eventually I offered enchiladas at the Landfill and that was the chosen option.
On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is Irish. My once boss, the LSCHP, a rabbi, Irish only in spirit, always took us all out to a bar to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We are a multicultural crowd. One year, one of our Indian guys got a little too much into the green beer. The LSCHP was worried about him driving home but that turned out okay because his car broke down.
I [belatedly] wish my Finnish friends a happy St. Urho’s Day and of course happy St. Patrick’s to everyone. But don’t end up in the londry baskit with Froooogy.
March 17th, 2024 at 10:17 pm
March 16th is my long ago college fiance’s birthday so I celebrate a little bit that I didn’t marry that guy. I’m hardly any Irish–mostly French, Scottish and Northern Italian (in that order) with some Scandinavian mixed in.
March 18th, 2024 at 8:20 am
Sounds like you haven’t done the DNA testing yet. It’s fun. As you probably know, for 100 bucks or so you’ll get a full listing of your general origins and there are often fun surprises. I’m basically 3/4 British and 1/4 German, which I knew, but some people sneaked in from Basque (!!) and Scandinavia. The most fun is tracing back your relatives. And seeing names of people who are your 3rd, 4th, 5th cousins. I always think about men (like my dad) who were in WWII and spent 4 years, as a single man, all over the world. You know… half siblings maybe? Didn’t find any. Was almost disappointed. Wikipedia has an interesting entry on your last name. I can see why people assume Finnish blood. (Can you tell I rely on Wikipedia for everything?).