Heikinpäivä goes on without polar plunge
HANCOCK — Hancock’s mid-winter festival will be missing one of its most popular attractions this year.
The bear rolls over this weekend as we have reached the midpoint of winter. Heikinpäivä is a distinctly Copper Country event that celebrates Finnish-American heritage and features a parade though downtown Hancock followed by games in the snow, such as the wife-carrying contest and the kicksled races.
New this year is a special dance immediately following the parade.
Heikinpäivä Executive Director Jim Kurtti said, “We incorporated another old phrase, which is karhunpeijaiset. It kind of has to do with an old tradition of the bear hunt, but this is where the bears are going to frolic and, following the parade, the people from the parade that are in costume and the children from the Kivajat Dancers and the public’s invited to join in this circle.”
Unseasonably warm temperatures for the last couple of weeks has caused the cancellation of one of the main attractions of the festival-the Polar Bear Dive.
Kurtti said, “The ice started to get unstable. There was standing water on parts of the ice and it just wasn’t safe and so after consulting with the Coast Guard, we decided that we simply had to cancel.”
Even with the return of colder temperatures, the ice will not be ready in time for tomorrow.
This is the first time the icy plunge into the Portage Canal has been cancelled.