Cholera Basin

In 1893, Johannes Michelsson, a sailor from Nagu who had come to the herring market died of cholera on his ship.

As a safety precaution, the herring ships were towed away from the harbour, and guards were briefly posted at the shore, because it was feared that the citizens might start to use the contaminated water.

There were rumours in the city that in the night, the barges silently dump their cargo straight into the water.

In order to celebrate this manifestly unscientific knowledge, the Finnish Unscientific Society (Epätieteellinen seura), a whimsical society with members mainly from the University of Helsinki, organizes an event where a chosen Jaakko throws a cold stone into the Cholera basin.

Since 1995, various objects have been thrown into the basin, including an iron, a deep frozen rock, a cosmic meteorite, a wooden cobble stone, a lava rock from Etna, half of a runestone, a rock from the Volga river, "an egg of a mummy" (cooled by 180 degrees by transport 180 degrees west in longitude) and a blade sharpening stone.