Nearly 9,000 Chileans experienced a moment of bliss on Sunday when they sealed a world record with a kiss.
Men and women, most of them in their 20s, poured onto a cordoned-off street in central Santiago, Chile’s capital, to smooch for at least 10 seconds in a bid to set a world record for the largest number of people kissing simultaneously.
A total of 8,890 people were counted kissing in the street for the record attempt organized by two of Chile’s best-known photographers, an event official said.
With more than 4,400 kissing couples, the Chileans easily eclipsed the current Guinness World Records mark set in February 2000 in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, when 1,588 pairs locked lips.
Chile, one of Latin America’s most socially conservative nations, began showing a more exhibitionist bent last year when over 3,000 people turned up on the same street to be photographed naked on a cold winter morning.
“You never used to see this kind of thing, people looked down on it. I think Chileans are coming out of the closet,” said 23-year-old Fiona Ceballos after kissing her boyfriend.