Tuesday, May 28, 2013

 Most sky lanterns flown simultaneously: Philippines breaks Guinness world record (VIDEO)

ILOILO CITY, Philippines -- The 15,185 sky lanterns flown from the football field of University of the Philippines Visayas in Miagao town of Iloilo province has set a new world record for Most sky lanterns flown simultaneously while promoting the world peace through inner peace, according to the World Record Academy: www.worldrecordacademy.com/ .

  Photo: A total of 15,185 sky lanterns are flown from the football field of University of the Philippines Visayas in Miag-ao, Iloilo. The May 24th event set a new World Record for the most number of sky lanterns flown and was also a campaign for world peace. Photo: Guijo Duenas ( enlarge photo )

 The previous Guinness world record for the Most sky lanterns flown simultaneously was set by Romania with 12,740 sky lanterns.

  Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the largest sky lantern, which is 11.68 m (38 ft 3 in) high, 10 m (32 ft 9 in) wide, 9.3 m (30 ft 6 in) deep, and has a volume of 1,086.24 m³ (38,360.2 ft³). It was created by Jhon Freddy Daza, Eyder Burbano and Rene Muñoz (all Colombia).

  The event held at the University of the Philippines Visayas was also a call for "World Peace through Inner Peace" and was organized by Filipino and Thai participants from various religious faiths.

  The event dubbed "Inaugural Light of Peace Event in the Philippines: World Peace through Inner Peace," was organized by the Middle Way Meditation Institute (MMI)-Philippines and its Thailand-based main organization which promotes meditation.

  Venerable Burin Thitakusalo, MMI director, said flying sky lanterns, a traditional form of prayer for Thais, was a way to encourage harmony and cultivate inner peace toward attaining world peace.

  Mayor Julieta Flores of the municipality of Miagao said that town is thankful for the presence of the thousands of participants in the event leading to the convergence of people from all walks of life towards the goal of world peace.

  The Thai-manufactured sky lanterns were made of rice paper with bamboo frames.   They had a diameter of 50 cm and a height of 150 cm, according to Dr. Emiliano Bernardo III, the event organizer.

  The participants were instructed to light the lanterns for two minutes and 45 seconds to allow the air inside to heat up before releasing them.

  The lanterns were released in three waves within 10 minutes starting at 6:45 p.m. by 5,000 pairs of participants.

  Leaders from Buddhism, Christianity and Islam were present as an estimated 10,000 people lit and released the lanterns, local media reported.