Britain has started 4-day celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee of her reign. The 96-year-old monarch acceded to the British throne at age of 25 in February 1952. She is Britain’s longest-reigning and currently the world’s oldest monarch. Her 70-year reign over Britain is being celebrated with a long Bank Holiday weekend, packed with street parties and pageantry across the UK.
Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday Parade- June 2
The Queen’s Birthday Parade, known as “Trooping the Colour” and which has been held for more than 260 years, will be held incentral London with more than 1,200 soldiers taking part along with military bands. The queen has attended every such parade bar one since 1955, with scaled-down ceremonies taking place in the last two years because of coronavirus restrictions. Due to her mobility issues, for the first time she will take the salute from soldiers and officers from the balcony of Buckingham Palace
There will be gun salutes at midday and a fly-past by modern and historic Royal Air Force planes. After the parade, the queen will be joined by working members of the royal family on the palace balcony to salute the crowds. In the evening, beacons will be lit in more than 2,000 towns, villages and cities across Britain and in the capital cities of Commonwealth countries. The queen will lead the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.
National Thanksgiving- June 3
A national service of thanksgiving will be held at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, and it’s Great Paul’ bell – the largest in the country and dating back to 1882 – will be rung for the first time at a royal occasion since being restored last year after a mechanism of broke in the 1970s. After the service, a reception will be held at London’s Guildhall hosted by the Lord Mayor of the City of London.
Platinum Party at the Palace- June 4
Members of the royal family will attend the Epsom racecourse as it stages the 243rd running of “The Derby” horse race. The queen, whose love of horse racing is well known and who is an owner and breeder of many horses, has been a regular attendee at the race in previous years. In the evening, a “Platinum Party at the Palace” concert will be staged in front of Buckingham Palace. Those appearing include American R&B singer Alicia Keys, U.S. singer Diana Ross and Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the hit musical “Hamilton”.
Queen Elizabeth’s Big Jubilee Lunches- June 5
“Big Jubilee Lunches” and an estimated 16,000 street parties will be held across the country, with some 600 also being staged across the globe, including in Canada, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and South Africa. In the afternoon, a pageant will be held in central London with the Gold State Coach at its head that Elizabeth used on her coronation day in 1953. It has not been seen on the streets of the capital for 20 years.
Organisers have said singer Ed Sheeran and more than 100 well-known figures from British cultural life will join some 10,000 performers and members of the armed forces for the parade, which will trace a route similar to that taken by the queen on the day of her coronation.
