Bradesco Seguros Christmas tree the world's biggest floating Christmas tree, according to the Guinness Book of Records – was inaugurated on Saturday evening, November 29, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at a major free event that brought together thousands of people on the shores of the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon to watch the lighting of the Tree, one of Rio's biggest events, after Carnaval and the New Year's Eve Réveillon celebration.

The world's biggest floating Bradesco Seguros Christmas tree brightens up ahead of the holiday season. (All photos courtesy of: arvorenatalbradescoseguros.com.br)

Starting on Sunday, November 30, the Tree will be lit up every day until January 6, Epiphany, following tradition. Drawing on the theme "A Christmas of Light," the light show dramatizing the Bradesco Seguros Christmas tree poetically illustrates the importance of light in our lives.  

The show begins with the STARS. A blue star highlights falling stars and a variety of others of different sizes, shapes and brightness, which shine through the night until the scene presents a new day.  An imposing presence, the SUN rises with its rays illuminating the Tree in Orange shades that vary over the course of the day, until the sun sinks below the horizon at the base of the tree, in a multi-hued twilight.  

The tree's lighting show depicts different times of the day.

Clouds announce the arrival of evening, soon brightly lit by the MOON in an explosion of blues and reds. Then natural light gives way to the artificial lighting created by people, with a display of lit windows. Of various shapes and sizes, they open onto people's homes, decorated with CANDLES, blinking Christmas tree lights, and green and gold decorations to celebrate the arrival of "A Christmas of Light."

The tree's lighting show ends with the coolness of night.

The Bradesco Seguros Christmas tree weighs 542 tons and stands 85 meters tall, equivalent to a 28-storey building. To illuminate this megastructure, 3.1 million miniature bulbs were installed, 120,000 meters of light strands, 24,000 meters of tubular structure, 2,150 strobes and 100 LED reflectors, as well as five generators on barges.  Some 1,200 people – including producers, engineers and artists – are involved in the project.