To my fellow Americans: happy National High Five Day!
To those of you around the world, you're welcome to join in on #NH5D too, we promise we don't bite.
For a quick history lesson, NH5D started in 2002 with students at the University of Virginia simply deciding one day to give out high fives to others on campus. Now, over a decade later, the third Thursday every April is a chance to high five everyone you know, and any strangers you don't.
We want to get involved in the fun, of course, and so to help celebrate, here are five (naturally) world records to get you in the spirit for today.
MOST HIGH FIVES IN ONE MINUTE (above)
Nothing but speed here. The most high fives in one minute is 212 by Deepak Sharma Bajagain (Nepal) at the GoldenGate International College in Old Baneshwor, Battisputali, Kathmandu, Nepal, on August 12 last year. Bajagain made his attempt to celebrate UN International Youth Day.
MOST HIGH FIVES IN ONE HOUR
The most high fives in one hour is 2,181. This was done by Ram Kadam and V Generation (India) at Ramleela Grounds in Ghatkopar-East, Mumbai, India, on Oct. 24, 2012. Kadam went through the arranged lot of more than 2,300 people waiting for a high five during the Indian festival of Navratri, nearly getting to all of them!
MOST HIGH FIVES IN 24 HOURS
One hour is certainly impressive, but the most high fives in 24 hours by an individual is 14,607. That was achieved by Pete Timbs (Australia) during the Bridge to Brisbane fun run, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, on Sept. 2, 2012. Timbs couldn't take part in the annual fun run due to a hamstring injury, but wanted to support the event by breaking a record and raising money for the Kids Help Line charity. He broke the previous record in just five hours.
LONGEST HIGH-FIVE CHAIN
Of course the La Quinta Inns & Suites employees at the company's annual conference were happy enough to high five each other - they got to spend their meetings at Waikoloa Village in Hawaii! The chain consisted of 1,110 participants on March 14 and took 23 min 15 sec to complete (starting at the 1:58 mark above).
MOST HIGH FIVES IN RELAY IN ONE MINUTE
Similar to the record immediately above, but compressed to 60 seconds. At the Hudson Hotel in New York City on Oct. 17, staff of American TV network truTV hit 105 slaps in one minute for this record.
There you have it! Go out there and high-five the first person you see today. And if you can get the other 211 in a minute after that, you know where to reach us.
And for the latest on all things world record, visit Guinness World Records on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and our brand-new Instagram. Plus check out Guinness World Records on YouTube to subscribe for the latest record-breaking videos!
