“With sweating brows they battled; backward and forward flew the disc between them, and a great din and crashing was heard afar.” This is how our national writer Aleksis Kivi describes the fierce battle of the Jukola brothers for the domination of their backyard.
Various ball-batting games were popular in Europe at the time of the story of Jukola’s seven brothers. Lauri “Tahko” Pihkala, known as a friend of orienteering, began to develop a game suitable for Finns, and after the independence of our country, the game was ready in the form of pesäpallo. The sport spread rapidly, especially within the Civil Guard, and was immediately popular in the physical education classes at school as well. In a hundred years, pesäpallo has developed into a sport that all Finns know both as a hobby and as a professional sport.
A special feature of the sport is that it is popular only in Finland.
We have carried our message through the summer night in the Mynämäki and Nousiainen area near Kallavuori on its crisp cliffs and pine forests to congratulate the 100th anniversary of the Finnish Pesäpallo Association and to wish success to a sport with strong Finnish roots.
In Mynämäki, June 19th 2022
The orienteers of the Jukola relay