The Vietnam Guinness Book of Records (Vietbooks) and An Hao Design and Printing Company will unveil Vietnam’s largest block calendar in HCM City on March 27.

The 800-kg Lich Su Viet Nam (History of Vietnam) calendar is 2m wide and 3.7m high. It features 365 silk paintings on Vietnam’s history from its beginnings to Reunification Day in 1975. An Hao Company spent more than 18 months and VND500 million (US$26,200) to make the calendar, which has a wooden frame carved with dragons.

In September, to celebrate 1,000 years of Thang Long-Hanoi, the company will also release 1,000 smaller 80kg versions of the calendar, 1.2m high and 1.7m wide, for sale. Twenty-one copies will be granted to governmental agencies and some Vietnamese embassies.

At calendar’s launch ceremony at Binh Quoi 2 Tourism Area on March 27, Vietbooks will present certificates and trophies to 32 record breakers chosen from nearly 300 submissions from across the country last year.

Individuals established 20 of the records including largest colour painting of a flower, largest gem dragon and oldest apricot tree.

Records established by groups include the largest dictionary written in Nom (Vietnamese script based on Han) and the most blood donors in one day. Le Tran Truong An, Vietbooks general director, said the 18^th meeting in HCM City was in preparation for a meeting of 100 Vietnamese record makers in Hanoi’s Imperial Academy) in September to celebrate the millennium of Thang Long-Hanoi.