The “world’s tallest Christmas tree” that Sri Lanka built last year under the aegis of the Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga and which was entered initially into the wrong category to be evaluated by the Guinness World Records has received its certification.
The project was to cost Rs. 200 million in private sponsorships, be lit up with 800,000 bulbs and decorated with two million pine cones. It suffered a temporary glitch in November. Construction was stopped after Colombo’s Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith called it “wasteful expenditure”. But work resumed after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe intervened with the Cardinal. The tree was inaugurated on Christmas day. Owing to the delay in construction, it was also a little shorter than expected.
A small ceremony was held whereby the certificate was handed over to the Prime Minister and the team in charge of building the tree were also awarded.
The certificate reads that the fete of the largest artificial Christmas Tree was achieved by Arjuna Ranatunga of Social Services Sri Lanka, Colombo and dated December 24, 2016.
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