St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone again. In traditional fashion, the day is marked by parades, festivals and drinking. President Donald Trump had his annual meeting with the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) in the White House, and the city of Chicago colored its river green. It’s quite amazing just how St. Patrick’s Day, as a celebration of Irish heritage, has become a national undertaking.
But what about the many Minnesotans who do not have Irish heritage? St. Patrick’s Day is such a large event it made me wonder about some of the other ancestry we have here in Minnesota and the rest of the United States. The 2010 U.S. Census reports about 12 percent of Minnesotans have Irish roots. Our state is often associated with Germans and Scandinavians, and the census shows this as well. A little under 38 percent of Minnesotans reported themselves as German, with Scandinavians making up a little under 17 percent.
Rounding out the rest of the population, Minnesota has six percent English, five percent Polish and about four percent for both French and Italian ancestry. All other ethnicities and ancestry groups make up less than three percent of the population each.
So the question is: What celebrations are there for the other ancestry groups in our state, and how do they compare to St. Patrick’s Day? To start, there are two days celebrated most often for German-American heritage. These are Von Steuben Day and German-American Day.
Von Steuben Day is usually celebrated in mid-September, and honors the famous general who helped train American troops in the Revolutionary War. German-American Day is Oct. 6. It was proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, with the date honoring the founding of the first German-American settlement in Pennsylvania in 1683.
For Scandinavian-Minnesotans, Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes and others, there are a multitude of festivities. Norwegian-Americans often celebrate Syttende Mai, or Constitution Day, on May 17. Sweden Day has been held on June 6 in New York City since 1941.
Finnish-Minnesotans have an especially local holiday, as St. Urho’s Day was created in Virginia, Minn. When questioned about the Finns’ lack of a saint like Saint Patrick for the Irish, Richard Mattson invented St. Urho, whose celebration day of March 16 is observed in several northern states, as well as Canada.
Another major holiday is Juneteenth. Observed every June 19, it commemorates the end of slavery in Texas announced on that day in 1865, being one of the last places in the country to continue the horrific practice. It has been increasingly growing as a day to celebrate African-American heritage.
While often not as nationally noted as St. Patrick’s Day, these and other celebrations show just how varied and rich our state’s culture and history are. So many people came to make this state their home throughout the years, as well as those here before the existence of the United States. I think we should make an effort to publicize and grow some of these lesser-known days, as well as St. Patrick’s Day. It would serve as a great reminder of the melting pot that is our state and our nation.
We continue to add new people as well through the United States’ long history of immigration. In today’s increasingly cosmopolitan world, this diversity is almost impossible to quantify. It is, I believe, one of the cores of America’s success. Our country attracts people who are drawn to the prospect of a better life for themselves and their families and driven to build successful careers and businesses. We enjoy freedoms and opportunities every day many in countries all over the world can only dream of.
We should always remember to celebrate where we came from and know the story of how we got here. America is a special place, indeed, because here our differences and diversity constitute our strengths, not our weaknesses. Around the world, in some places, different groups split nations apart. Here, it’s part of what makes us Americans. That is something we should never forget and always be grateful for and celebrate.
Connor Kockler is a Sauk Rapids-Rice High School student. He enjoys writing, politics and news, among other interests.
