An Australian lawyer has set a world record by stringing up almost 1.2 million Christmas lights in the center of the nation’s capital.
Guinness World Records yesterday confirmed that the 120km of multicolored wire strung in the shape of three interconnected giant, wrapped Christmas gifts in a downtown Canberra shopping mall was the largest ever image made out of LED lights.
Lawyer David Richards assembled the Canberra light show with the help of an army of volunteers and powers it with electricity donated by a local power company.
Photo: EPA
He set a Guinness World Record a year ago for the most Christmas lights on a residential property by cocooning his Canberra home with 502,165 bulbs.
However, traffic snarls in his neighborhood created by 75,000 sightseers who visited the display over four weeks made it difficult for his family to get to and from their home.
“I couldn’t do it again to my neighbors or my family,” Richards said, explaining the move to the city center.
The latest light show opened to the public free of charge yesterday and is to run until New Year’s Eve.
Visitors to the light show last year donated A$138,000 (US$117,000) to a local Canberra Sudden Infant Death Syndrome counseling and support service.
Richards said he expects donations to the charity will be higher with the bigger and more spacious display.
The 1,194,380 twinkling bulbs arranged since Wednesday beat the previous record set in Shurtan in southern Uzbekistan by 181,540 lights.
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