St. Urho's Day

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

This is from Norden newspaper about St. Urho.

June

[M. Waters Registered Find all posts View Profile Close M. Waters]

June, it was good to read some of the history of St. Urho's Day, but I have read of others who claim to be creators of that special day, too. I can only tell you what my uncle, George Simons of Virginia, Minnesota, told me...that he was one of the coffee bunch at Ketola's that dreamed up the celebration...I don't know if he added anything, just that he was there. I am also trying to find out more about Uncle George, if anyone remembers him. They lived in an apartment on Chestnut Street, but he died long ago, after my aunt died, and he moved south. That's all I know. Midge.

[sune Registered Find all posts View Profile Close sune]

Could it be that the hopping was in fact letkajenkka, the dancecraze tha spread from Finland all over Europe for a short while in the mid sixties?

It is danced to a jenkkatune. The dancers form a cue holding the hips of the person in front of you like in conga. It goes like this:
left kick, left kick, rigt kick, right kick forward jump, backward jump, forward jump, forward jump, left kick. left kick et.c.

When 50 or 100 people do this in unison in a cue I can tell you that the floor takes a good beating.

If several of the dancers have had a lot of beer the forward jumps tend to get longer and longer, and you never know how the session ends.

Sune