From Trooping the Colour to honouring people, there is joy everywhere
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Auckland, June 4, 2018
New Zealand marked the Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II today, June 4, 2018.
Australia will celebrate her Birthday on Monday, June 11, 2018.
In Canada, the Birthday is the Monday before May 25 every year.
In the United Kingdom, the Queen’s Birthday is a moveable feast and will be on June 9.
But the Queen was actually born on April 21.
Why the difference? There are some historic reasons.
Monarch’s Birthday in the 18th Century
The Birthday of the Queen or the King is the selected day in some Commonwealth realms on which the Birthday of the monarch (currently Elizabeth II) is officially celebrated.
The Sovereign’s Birthday was first officially marked in the United Kingdom in 1748 for King George II. Since then, the date of the King or Queen’s Birthday has been determined throughout the British Empire, and later the Commonwealth of Nations, according to either different royal proclamations issued by the Sovereign or Governor or by statute laws passed by the local Parliament.
Weather dominates
The date of the celebration today varies as adopted by each country and is generally set around the end of May or start of June, to coincide with a higher probability of fine weather in the Northern Hemisphere for outdoor ceremonies, rather than with the monarch’s actual Birthday, that of the present monarch being 21 April.
In some cases, it is an official public holiday, sometimes aligning with the celebration of other events. Most Commonwealth realms release a Queen’s Birthday Honours list at this time.
The Queen’s Official Birthday was originally celebrated on the second Thursday of June, the same day that her father King George VI celebrated his Official Birthday during his reign.
However, this was changed in 1959, seven years after she became Queen, and her Official Birthday has since then been celebrated on the second Saturday of June.
Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910 and whose Birthday was on November 9, moved the ceremony after 1908 to summer in the hope of good weather.
Trooping the Colour
The day is marked in London by the ceremony of Trooping the Colour, which is also known as the Queen’s Birthday Parade.
Acting as the personal bodyguards of the Queen, the Guards are one of the oldest regiments of the British Army. They have been a constant fixture of the monarchy since the English Civil War ended in 1660.
‘Colours’ were the regimental flags of the British Army which displayed the uniform colours and insignia of different units. They were designed to help troops quickly identify their unit on the battlefield and avoid confusion.
In order for troops to be familiar with their regiment’s Colours, it was necessary to display them regularly. So, young officers would march in between the ranks of troops stood in lines holding the Colours high. Thus the word, ‘Trooping.’
The Colour of the troops refers to the historical colour-coding of British regiments worn on their uniforms and represented in each regiment’s flag.
The list of Birthday Honours is also announced at the time of the Official Birthday celebrations.
In British diplomatic missions, the day is treated as the National Day of the United Kingdom.
Although it is not celebrated as a specific public holiday in the UK, some civil servants are given a ‘Privilege Day’ at this time of year, which is often merged with the Spring Bank Holiday (last Monday in May) to create a long weekend, which was partly created to celebrate the monarch’s Birthday.
In Scotland
Parts of Scotland also mark Queen Victoria’s Birthday on the third Monday in May.
Local government and higher education institutions typically close on this day.
In New Zealand
In New Zealand, the holiday is the first Monday in June. Celebrations are mainly official, including the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and military ceremonies.
There have been proposals, with some political support, to replace the holiday with Matariki (Maori New Year) as an official holiday.
The idea of renaming the Queen’s Birthday weekend to Hillary weekend, after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to ascend Mount Everest, was raised in 2009.
In Australia
Australian States and Territories observe the Queen’s Birthday on the second Monday in June, except in Western Australia and Queensland.
As Western Australia celebrates Western Australia Day (formerly known as Foundation Day) on the first Monday in June, the Governor of Western Australia each year proclaims the day on which the state will observe the Queen’s Birthday, based on school terms and the Perth Royal Show.
There is no firm rule to determine this date, though it is usually the last Monday of September or the first Monday of October.
In 2012, Queensland celebrated the holiday in October, as the June holiday was reserved to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II as the Queen of Australia, after which the holiday has reverted to its traditional date in line with the other eastern Australian states.
Starting in 2016, Queensland celebrates the holiday on the first Monday of October, so that a long weekend coincides with the Australian Football League (AFL) and the National Rugby League (NRL) Grand Finals.
In Canada
A Royal Proclamation issued on February 5, 1957 established the Canadian monarch’s official Birthday as the last Monday before 25 May.
The Sovereign’s Birthday has been observed in Canada since 1845, when Parliament of the Province of Canada passed a statute to officially recognise Queen Victoria’s Birthday as May 24. Over the ensuing decades, after Queen Victoria died in 1901 (at which time the Monday before 25 May became known by law as Victoria Day, the official date in Canada of the reigning monarch’s Birthday changed through various royal proclamations: for Edward VII it continued by yearly proclamation to be observed on 24 May, but was June 3 for George V and June 23 for Edward VIII (their actual Birthdays).
The first official Birthday of Elizabeth II was the last to be celebrated in June; the haphazard format was abandoned in 1952, when the Governor-General-in-Council moved Empire Day and an amendment to the law moved Victoria Day both to the Monday before 25 May, and the monarch’s official Birthday in Canada was by regular Vice-Regal proclamations made to fall on this same date every year between 1953 and 1957, when the link was made permanent.
In Fiji and South Pacific
Despite Fiji abolishing the monarchy in 1987, following a second military coup d’état, the Queen’s Birthday continued to be celebrated each 12 June until 2012. That year, the government of Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama announced that the holiday would be abolished.
Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands celebrate the Queen’s Official Birthday on the second Monday of June. Tuvalu does so on the second Saturday of June. In Saint Kitts and Nevis, the date of the holiday is set each year.
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Photo Caption:
- Queen Elizabeth II celebrating her 92nd Birthday with the Royal Family on April 21, 2018
- Trooping the Colour-an annual feast marking the British Monarch’s Birthday
(Pictures from the Buckingham Palace Website)
