Tens of millions of Iranians and devotees from across the world turned the funeral ceremonies for the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, into the largest procession the world has ever witnessed, according to a report.
The six-day grand farewell and burial rites for the revered Leader were held across five cities – Tehran, Qom, Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad – drawing massive, passionate crowds that defied all previous records, the Fars News Agency reported.
The ceremonies included three days in Tehran, two days of public mourning at the Grand Mosalla and one day of the main funeral procession, with each of the other cities hosting a full day of tributes. Many mourners traveled between cities, multiplying the scale of participation and creating a continuous wave of devotion.
Official estimates, compiled from multiple independent field and government sources, confirm that between 41 and 43 million people took part in the historic events.
I don’t buy it. Did the Guinness people confirm this?
I don’t buy that number either, but the Guinness people are really more so a service where you pay them to certify your ‘record’ rather than all-knowing, impartial arbitrator of world records. If you think you’ve done or have the longest/biggest/most whatever thing, YOU go to THEM, pay a few fees (up to half a million dollars in some cases), and if they like it, they’ll give you the certificate. And if you don’t quite meet the requirements for what you said, they’ll usually tweak them a little bit to make your attempt worth it. There are several videos I could recommend that all do a deep dive into what the GBWR actually does, but I’d recommend this episode of John Oliver (below). The relevant section starts around 14:45 (also it’s just fun, to me at least, to hear the name of the guy he’s talking about)
50 goddamn percent of the entire country did NOT show up to his funeral.
“Took part in” probably includes people who saw a glimpse of it on TV or something