From left to right: Abdo Feghali, photo taken from the Red Bull MEA website ; Caroline Chaptini, photo taken from her Instagram account ; and Chef Ramzi and his students, photo taken from the Guinness World Records website. (Montage by L’Orient-Le J
BEIRUT — Christmas in Lebanon this year brought a host of new world records, some of which were listed in the Guinness World Records, the renowned British reference book.
From Dec. 16 to 23 in Kfar Debian (Kesrouan), the longest Christmas concert took place, lasting 170 hours of singing — seven consecutive days. Launched by Sandra Akiki, the event brought together 135 choirs and 200 musicians.
That same week, the Collège des Sœurs Antonines in Roumieh (Metn) unveiled the largest Christmas tree made of natural soap, standing 2.5 meters tall and weighing over two tons.
Less seasonal but just as spectacular, Lebanese cooked chicken company Wilco set, on Dec. 19, the record for the largest bowl of chicken nuggets, with 85,000 nuggets for a total weight of 2,026 kilograms. To mark these latest achievements, L’Orient-Le Jour presents a selection of Lebanon's most unusual records.
The largest banknote collection
On Sept. 29, 2019, the record for the largest banknote collection was awarded to Wissam Ali Youssef, from Shaqra (South Lebanon), with a total of 12,282 banknotes from different countries around the world. Their total value was estimated at over $294,000.
Youssef started his collection at the age of eight, his first collection was destroyed in July 2006, when Israel struck South Lebanon. At the time of his record, Youssef expressed the hope of one day displaying his collection at an exhibition.
The longest refereeing career
Sarkis Demirdjian holds the record for the longest career as a FIFA referee, spanning 20 years and 10 months, from September 1962 to July 1983. The achievement is even more remarkable since, at the time, FIFA required referees to be accredited only from the age of 25 to 45.
Those who exceeded this limit, up until 2016, had to undergo additional exams. Sarkis Demirdjian officiated 826 matches during his career, the most eventful being the Iran-Turkey game in 1967, during which he handed out eight yellow cards and two red cards.
The longest car drift
In 2013, rally driver Abdo Feghali set the record for the longest continuous car drift, covering 11.18 kilometers on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He completed 43 laps of the 260-meter circular track in 14.28 minutes behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Camaro SS.
Caroline Chaptini and her seven records
Environmental activist Caroline Chaptini currently holds seven world records. Among them, in December, she collected the most messages to Santa Claus in 24 hours, with 2,924 messages, in Batroun (North Lebanon), and the previous month, she created the largest tree sculpture made from plastic bottles, designed as a cedar and standing 21.06 meters tall in Amioun (North Lebanon).
In June 2020, Chaptini assembled the largest bottle cap mosaic, measuring 196.94 square meters, in Miziara (North Lebanon).
The records that have made Lebanese cuisine shine
Chef Ramzi (Ramzi Choueiri), who passed away in 2023, achieved several titles: in 2010, the largest serving of hummus, weighing 10,452 kilograms and prepared by 300 culinary students from his al-Kafa’at hospitality school; as well as the largest serving of tabbouleh, at 3,557 kilograms; and the largest serving of falafel, at 5,173 kilograms. In 2017, the chef also prepared the largest serving of fatteh, at 3,438.2 kilograms.
Miscellaneous, Lebanon also holds the record for the largest kibbeh, at 233 kilograms, prepared in 2009 by the NGO al-Midan; the largest fattoush, at 4,432.52 kilograms, created in 2010 by the municipality of Kab Elias; the longest sandwich, at 735 meters, prepared by the scouts of the Notre-Dame des Sœurs Antonines School; and the longest man’ousheh, at 31.97 meters, made by Amjad School in 2015.
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