Time for a Heikki Lunta snow dance?

So you want some snow at your house?

You desire more of the thick white sparkling beautiful snow adorning your evergreens and freshening your winter blues?

We Yoopers (residents of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula or the “U.P.”) know how to get snow.

Here is the secret.

You ask the Snow God, Heikki Lunta, for some of the white stuff.

Then you strap on your snowshoes or find your skis–and you’re off into an amazing winter world!

Just listen to this YouTube song by a Yooper group Conga Se Menne which talks about Heikki Lunta showing up for a sauna.   While your listening, check out photos of what a “normal” winter looks like around here.  This winter is definitely not “normal”.

References from the song, just in case you don’t understand da local lingo:

Conga Se Menne:  A popular Yooper band with a reggae beat.  ANYTHING is possible in this day and age!

Heikki Lunta—  A Finnish Snow God character who originated in the mythology of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  Way back in 1970, snowmobile racers at the Range Snowmobile Club wanted snow for the race.   David Riutta created the Heikki Lunta song which aired on a local radio station asking the Finnish snow god for enough white stuff.

According to local tales, the snow fell and fell, until there was too much. People were superstitious that Riutta’s song had caused too much snow for the race, so in response to public outcry, Riutta recorded a separate track entitled, “Heikki Lunta Go Away.”

Blogger’s note:  I kid you not.

Oulu Hotshots:  A Finnish-American band from Oulu, Wisconsin.  Oulu, as everyone knows, was named after a city in northern Finland.

Blogger’s note:  There are a LOT of Finns here in Michigan’s U.P.

the “t” sound”:  In all good Yooper Finnish songs, one does not pronounce the “t” sound in words like “that’s” and “them”.  Instead, one says “dat’s” and “dem”.

Blogger’s note:  Try talking like this for an hour.

Sauna:  You’ve all been to da sauna, right?  As we all know, da sauna is a traditional Finnish steam/heat  bath.  Around here it is pronounced:  sow’ na.  Not saw’ na.  Please do not pronounce it saw’ na.  Blogger’s note:  Here is a blog I wrote about da sauna.

Raatikka:  A type of Finnish dance.  So they say.  Your blogger has never heard of it.

Makaraa:  The Finnish word for sausage.

Aili:  A common Finnish woman’s name.  Your blogger knows one woman named Aili.

Da Yoopers:  a popular regional band who also has there own Heikki Lunta song.

Viilia:  Clabbered milk product of–you guessed it–Finnish origin.

Yooper:  We already covered this.  Upper Peninsula residents.

Trenary Toast:  a commercially produced dried cinnamon toast product commonly called hardtack. It is exported from the region for expatriate Yoopers to purchase.   Blogger’s note:  I often bring Trenary Toast to my parent’s condo in Florida for a native Yooper to dunk in her coffee.

Ontonagon:  a town a couple of hours west of here, on the far western edge of da Copper Country.

Copper Country:  What they call the area where we live, due to the copper mining industry which once ruled here.  Well, we’re really on the far eastern edge.  Ontonagon is on the far western edge.

OK, readers, everybody outside now and snow dance!   (Let me know if it works.  If it’s still not snowing after an hour–keep dancing at regular intervals until Monday.)

P.S.  Some Yooper must have boogied Heikki Lunta last night.  We got 5-6 inches of new snow–just enough to cover all that treacherous ice.