Saturday were the World Kyykkä Championships. I didn't see anyone from outside of Finland but I hear they play kyykkä in other Scandinavian countries as well. From my experience on Saturday, the most important part of kyykkä seemed to be to have fun. There were over 250 teams from all over Finland, with varying degrees of skill and competitiveness. Kyykkä is a traditional Finnish sport that has become popular again in recent years, especially among college students. However, anyone who paid their entrance fee could form a team. In addition to the World Championships, you can find kyykkä tournaments within companies and between groups of friends, similar to softball in the States. There are some goofy traditions that start with drinking beer at 9:00 in the morning, and continue way beyond bribing the judges. I've heard people talk about the quality of their bribes for the judges with as much (or more) pride as they have in their kyykkä game.
All students at Finnish universities have these overalls that are worn during certain occasions. Kyykkä is one of these occasions. The color of the overalls correspond to a particular field of study. For example, environmental engineers have green overalls. My neighbor is from the Netherlands, they apparently have a similar technical student overall situation. In Holland you're only allowed to wash your overalls once per year! I don't know if that is the case in Finland.
These guys gave a high quality performance on the Kyykkä documentary below. They demonstrated the importance of drinking lots of beer while throwing things.
This is a short documentary that I made of Kyykkä Day. I interviewed a few folks and filmed the game in action.
Check it out!
All students at Finnish universities have these overalls that are worn during certain occasions. Kyykkä is one of these occasions. The color of the overalls correspond to a particular field of study. For example, environmental engineers have green overalls. My neighbor is from the Netherlands, they apparently have a similar technical student overall situation. In Holland you're only allowed to wash your overalls once per year! I don't know if that is the case in Finland.
These guys gave a high quality performance on the Kyykkä documentary below. They demonstrated the importance of drinking lots of beer while throwing things. 
1 comment:
Dude...I loved the video. I haven't seen it yet, but now I feel like I experienced it first hand (minus all the the beer drinking). That last interview was classic!
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