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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula February 9, 2006 Text © 2006 Community Arts Center and Michele Anderson. Photos  © 2006 Michele Anderson, Wade Wainio and Sharon Cuffe, as noted.

Heikinpäivä mittens decorate Hancock

HANCOCK -- Have you seen the colorful mittens in downtown Hancock? Some of the best from the Heikinpäivä parade line the sidewalk in front of Hancock Middle School, and others are dispersed through the downtown area. 

Colorful mittens from the Heikinpäivä parade decorate the sidewalk in front of Hancock Middle School on Quincy Street. (Photo © 2006 Michele Anderson)

Community Artist Mary Wright, the originator of the mitten project, has extended it to include an art project for painting more mittens to be mounted on Hancock's lampposts in the coming week. The Community Arts Center has been hosting work sessions from Feb. 4 through Feb. 9 to allow community members to paint the mittens.

Wright said she came up with the idea of mittens for Heikinpäivä for various reasons.

"As an artist I like to engage the entire community in creating everyday objects, and for me a mitten represents warmth and protection," Wright said. "It's heartwarming and suggests childhood and Grandma. For a winter celebration I think mittens are a perfect symbol, and their color cheers us up."*

These colorful red and pink mittens brighten a cloudy winter day in Hancock (Photo by Michele Anderson)

The mitten project is made possible with a mini-grant from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs with support from Upper Peninsula Power Company, Portage Health Systems, Steve Zutter and the City of Hancock.

Keweenaw Now brings readers some memories of Heikinpäivä with photos of some of our favorite mittens and additional photos contributed by Wade Wainio of Atlantic Mine and Sharon Cuffe of Chassell.**

"Mittens on mittens" give an extra symbolic twist to this beautiful snowman mitten. Can you decipher the message in the thumb?  (Photo by Michele Anderson)

Heikinpäivä, Hancock's mid-winter celebration held in January, is named for St. Henrik, considered the patron saint of Finland. He was a 12th-century Englishman who became a Swedish bishop and set out to convert Finns to the Christian faith but suffered a martyr's fate.

Could this be St. Henrik joining the fun during the 2006 Heikinpäivä celebration? Actually he's a namesake -- Henry Feldhusen of Toivola. (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

Another mitten ...

Outside the Finnish-American Heritage Center, artist Marco Riolo displays his very colorful mitten during Heikinpäivä. (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

Does anyone have a memory of the water temperature during the Polar Bear Dive? Wade Wainio got these action shots.

Keweenaw Now contributing photographer Wade Wainio titles this shot of a Polar Bear diver, about to hit the icy waters of the Portage, "Flipped." (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

This photo is titled "Plunge." Only for the bravest of the brave. (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

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The title of this shot? Wade calls her "Wonder Woman," of course! (Photo © 2006 Wade Wainio.)

Visitors to the Heikinpäivä Tori in the Finnish-American Heritage Center enjoyed the warmth and good music provided in the lobby by local musicians.

Folk musician Oren Tikkanen, left, is joined by young Kelly Suvanto on fiddle and by John Perona on spoons. These musicians were playing favorite tunes Kelly learned from her teacher, the late Ed Lauluma, who was honored at  last year's Heikinpäivä as Hankooki Heikki. Ed passed away Nov. 28, 2005.*** (Photo© 2006 Sharon Cuffe.)

Editor's Notes: *You can see photos of Mary Wright beginning the mitten project on the Heikinpäivä Web site.

** Keweenaw Now contributing photographer Wade Wainio of Atlantic Mine, a graduate of Finlandia University, is a musician and writer, as well as a photographer. Watch for more of his photos soon. Sharon Cuffe of Chassell is the proud Mom of fiddler Kelly Suvanto and a graduate student in Business at Michigan Tech University.

*** Read more about the late Ed Lauluma.

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