Finland has appeared in my “weird news” columns before because of a conspiracy theory that said the Nordic country did not really exist. In an attempt to perhaps prove they are real, the Finns are making “weird” headlines again, as they recently created the world’s largest ice carousel!

If you do not know what an “ice carousel” is, it is a large disk of ice cut from a frozen lake that is then attached to a motor, so it spins dainty upon the surface of the frozen lake like a carnival merry-go-round.

The first one was apparently created by Finnish inventor Janne Käpylehto, who posted his “ice carousel” on a video that went viral in 2017. Since then, many others have attempted to duplicate and even top his feat. So many, in fact, that is now a Guinness Book Category.

A team in Finland is vying to beat the current world record for the largest round “ice carousel” lead by Käpylehto himself. On the vast lake of Lappajärvi in ​​the west of the country, a group led by the rightful heir to the title works to create their masterpiece.  It will take several days of shoveling snow and cutting a huge circle of ice more than 300 meters (985 ft) in diameter with a chainsaw to then attach to a boat engine for it to rotate. 

The current record is of 228 meters (748 ft) is held by an American in Minnesota.

“It’s crazy,” confesses  Käpylehto, whose team had to start by clearing 16 in of snow in a circle whose perimeter exceeds half of a mile. To certify the carousel as a record-breaker, the merry-go-round must complete at least one full rotation on itself, which its designers hope it will do once they have completed construction.  Käpylehto says the main difficulty is to form a perfect circle so as not to impede the rotation.

“If it is not perfectly circular, the merry-go-round does not turn,” explains Thor-Fredric Karlsson, one of the assistants to the project.

Käpylehto is a renewable energy specialist. She says she has built over 60 carousels. His other environmental exploits include sailing a solar-powered floating sauna 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Helsinki to Tallinn in 2018.

The local community has sponsored and supported the event, which it is using, it says to raise awareness of the impact of global warming, which is leading to shorter winters in the region.