#FinnishCrazyGames: Reflect Your Berry Picking Skills

Photo: Harri Tarvainen/Visit Finland 

 Photo: Hannu Laatunen/Vastavalo/Visit Finland

The perfect way to enjoy the beautiful Finnish nature and breathe the fresh air is to go out in the forest and pick some delicious berries. The best berry-picking season in Finland is from late July to early October. Public access rights or “everyman’s rights” allow you to pick wild berries as much as you want. In the Finnish forests, you can find treasures like bilberries, lingonberries, wild strawberries and cloudberries full of vitamins and flavonoids.

Photo: Visit Finland

Spending this time in the forest you will most likely amass large quantities of berries and most importantly, accomplished next-level berry picking skills. The village of Suomussalmi even has the World Championships of Berry Picking! In one hour contestants try and pick as many berries as they can with best pickers rewarded with money. The current all-time record is 27,98 kilos of lingonberries.

Photo: Antti Saraja/Visit Finland 

We are short on berries to pick at the Embassy, so we decided to swap them for the next best thing, the classic Finnish ‘snowflake’ safety reflectors. Personal safety reflectors are a safety standard, whereby pedestrians are required to wear reflectors when travelling the roads after dark. How many safety reflectors can you pick, join us at the Finnish Crazy Games to find out!

Finnish Crazy Games is being hosted at the Embassy of Finland to Australia on October 13th 2018 from 10am with the assistance of our major partners KONE, Finnair and Wärtsilä. The event is a fundraiser for Canteen in support of their mission to help youngsters whose lives are impacted by cancer. If you can please donate here. Head on over to our website www.finnishcrazygames.com to learn more about the games and other activities taking place this year.