If you are wondering about the perks of being a Queen, we have just the right one for you. This perk is apart from owning a personal poet, or never having to pay tax, or never needing a passport to travel, or owning a private cash machine, or never to be arrested, or being the head of religion, not to mention the attires you can flaunt. Yes, the perk we are discussing today is the fact that, like most of the monarchs before her, the queen gets to celebrate two birthdays.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II turned 91 this April on 21st. The occasion was celebrated with multiple incidences of gun salutes around the kingdom. Although the Monarchs celebrate the day privately, however, the official birthday will be celebrated luxuriously with a parade through the London on 17th of June. The celebration is known as Trooping the Color.
The official birthday is celebrated separately from her day of birth on Saturdays in late May or June since it’s dreadfully cold for a parade during the month of April. She is not the only one, her predecessors, King George II, before her in 1748, started the tradition since he too was born in frosty November. The King, looking after his loyal subjects, united his birthday with Annual Spring Parade called Trooping the Color.
Initially, the parades were strictly speaking a military affair, with only colors presented belonged to the regiment’s flags. Later Edward VII shared the fortune of George II by being born in November. It was Edward VII, who standardized the tradition of George II and added a personal twist on the concept by introducing the Royal review of the troops, which made the parade as an event for the public to witness.
Earlier the official birthday was held on a Thursday and now on a Saturday. Similarly, the Commonwealth nations have their own measures to invoke the celebration of Her Majesty’s official birthday, so that the event can be marked as a public holiday.
So, If you are anything like me, who wants to be pampered on her special day privately, yet royally by your family, and later publically with the nation in form of parade, you would definitely look into ways to become a queen.