Sri Lankans rush to build towering Christmas tree on time
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The goal has been to erect the world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree, but Sri Lankan organizers now say they’ll be lucky to get the tree up in time for the holiday.
Hundreds of port workers and volunteers were scrambling Tuesday to build the enormous tree on a popular beachside promenade in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. Once assembled, the steel-and-wire frame should stand 98 metres (320 feet) high — more than 40 metres (131 feet) taller than the current record-holder.
Organizers said they wanted the tree to help promote ethnic and religious harmony in the Buddhist-majority South Asian island nation.
“This is just to show the world that we can live as one country, one nation,” said the former cricket player Arjuna Ranatunga, now Sri Lanka’s minister of ports and shipping. Sri Lanka has “issues regarding religion, caste and race,” he said.