Lahti was sleeping like Sleeping Beauty when participants in the National Jäynä Competition slipped into the city. The operation began at nine o’clock on Monday morning. The competition was organised for the 34th time by TEK.
Guarded like a state secret
The competition is guarded like a state secret beforehand, as the pranks, or in Finnish, jäynäs depend on taking people completely by surprise. Not even the organisers know in advance what jäynäs the teams will pull or where.
TEK’s lawyer had instructed the teams to stay within the law.
“Impersonating a public official, for example, is not permitted.”
Keeping things in good taste is also part of the game. A jäynä should amuse without humiliating anyone.
How the winner is chosen
“The most important judging criterion is whether the jäynä is funny,” says Vesa Taskinen, Secretary General of the competition.
When judging humour, the jury considers the idea and people’s reactions. The second criterion is the teekkari spirit: the wackiness of the idea, wholehearted commitment and acting.
“We also give credit for technical ingenuity – how well the jäynä reflects the team’s own field,” Taskinen adds.
The final criterion is the quality of the documentation. Teams often edit their videos late into the night to get the finishing touches just right.
Which of the 2026 finalists would you choose?
A soft toy as a babysitter
At a shopping centre, the Tampere team presents a small teddy bear that talks and moves. It works like a baby monitor, but does much more.
“OPA, short for Oma pehmoavustaja – ‘My Soft Toy Assistant’ – is a babysitter that communicates with its surroundings.”
Curious passers-by are asked to simulate a child crying for the bear, perform movements and try pronunciation exercises. Only in the final test do they discover that it was a teekkari jäynä.
Biotechnology students’ miracle protein
The Turku team presents an innovative quark-based protein product that is absorbed in a matter of minutes and boosts strength by as much as tens of per cent.
The tests involve measuring grip strength, filling in forms and doing exercises.
“Your strength could increase by considerably more than ten per cent,” the biotechnology students chuckle.
Making raspberry noises in a fitting room
“These are the busiest pensioners we’ve ever seen,” the Lappeenranta team remarks at Paavola Citymarket.
People speed past the Capriole Health demonstration point, as sales reps usually occupy the same spot.
Anyone who stops gets to take part in a convincing-looking test that applies animals’ stress-management techniques to humans. In a space resembling a fitting room, participants perform a series of increasingly wacky tasks.
Neurotherapy with a bucket on your head
“The theme is ‘go big or go home’,” the Otaniemi team explains at its market square stand.
A device described as a brain massager treats subconscious mental blocks.
A bucket is placed on the participant’s head, and they are told to focus intensely on imagining certain words. When the bucket is removed, the corresponding things have appeared in front of them.
A table with chairs, four students seated around it, and a clown. The theatrical experience is amusing and baffling.
A data centre and lake water at 67 degrees
Oulu-based Kvanttikolo Oy is building a megalomaniacal floating data centre on beautiful Pikku-Vesijärvi lake, which will heat the lake water to 67 degrees Celsius.
“Some of the people who’ve stopped by would have been quite happy with that, as so many have had cold feet,” the Oulu team explains.
But wouldn’t that kill absolutely everything?
“Well, at least it would kill athlete’s foot,” the team quips.
A mattress that studies relaxation
At the Syke shopping centre, a mattress is on display that uses sensors to study relaxation.
“We’ve done breathing exercises around it and created more stressful situations by singing our student association’s versions of various songs,” the Vaasa team explains.
The jäynä was so convincing that a couple of physiotherapists were inspired to develop the device further.
“One couple said they were standing with five future millionaires, and they wanted a selfie with us too.”
Vaasa team photographed in the Jäynä Gala, photo by Jari Härkönen.
An all-night effort brought victory to Lappeenranta
Capriole Health from Lappeenranta claimed this year’s title of Teekkari Pranksters of the Year. They also won the award for the most technical jäynä (‘prank’). The winners of the jäynä competition were announced at the Jäynä Gala in Otaniemi on Tuesday, 27 October.
How does it feel?
“Absolutely amazing! We’ve put a heck of a lot of time into this and really given it our all. It feels so good to have that rewarded,” enthused team captain Eino Auvinen.
TEK’s prank archive (in Finnish) has no record of earlier jäynä competition victories for Lappeenranta. The annual records begin in 2013, so this is at least the first victory for Lappeenranta in 13 years.
The team hopes their victory will encourage others in Lappeenranta to do jäynäs too – they say this has been one of the most fun experiences of their student years so far.
“We don’t really have an understanding of jäynäs in Lappeenranta. Now we’re trying to change that a little too,” said Samu Toikkanen.
Fun, perhaps, but pulling off a winning jäynä was not easy. At the time of the interview, the team said they had been awake for 35 hours straight.
“We woke up at half past six [on Monday morning] to look for a place to do our jäynä and got started at nine. When we began editing the video, we had some really bad luck: the computer with all our files on it died,” Auvinen described.
“It just wouldn’t start,” Ville Lehtinen clarified.
The teams must carry out their jäynä and submit a video of it within 24 hours, between nine on Monday morning and nine on Tuesday morning.
“We unscrewed two laptops so we could move the hard drives over and rescue our files. And that wasn’t all – our remaining computers didn’t have enough power to edit all the clips we had from all the cameras,” said Lauri Sorsa.
“We called my girlfriend and asked if she could bring us a computer from Lappeenranta [to Lahti]. Less than two hours later, she brought us an editing computer, and we managed to put the video together,” Sorsa continued.
The video was ready at quarter past eight on Tuesday morning.
“We haven’t really slept at any point,” Ville Lehtinen said.
Awards also went to Otaniemi, Turku and Tampere
Kräpylä Tech, the team from Otaniemi, was the fastest to solve the driving directions to Lahti, the competition city. The Turku team, 0‰ turkulainen, received a special mention for their feel-good jäynä.
Before the main competition, the teams carried out a local jäynä, and the public could vote for these preliminary jäynäs on the Tekniikka&Talous website. Funkkisherrat from Tampere won the public vote. In their jäynä, a delivery robot roamed around Tampere, asking people to pet it, among other things. You can explore all the preliminary jäynäs here (page in Finnish).
Text: Heidi Tomperi
Explore the Jäynä Gala
The Jäynä Gala was organised by Otaniemen Jämerän Toiminnan Kilta.
Finalists 2026
0‰ turkulainen (Turku)
Capriole Health (lappeen Ranta)
Rrrata (Vaasa)
Funkkisherrat (Tampere)
Jee Jee (Oulu)
Kräpylä Tech (Espoo)