Queen’s Tradition Of Celebrating Her Birthday Twice A Year Dates Back To 1784

Jun 02, 2022 by apost team

Queen Elizabeth II will be celebrating her 70-year reign the first week of June 2022, although the true anniversary was on Feb. 6, 2022. The Platinum Jubilee is to take place over a four-day bank holiday and citizens are encouraged to partake in several celebratory events. 

One of the more notable parties, called the Platinum Party, will be on June 4, 2022, which also happens to be Lilibet's first birthday. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's daughter was born in Santa Monica, California and the first photo of her was shared on the family's 2021 holiday card.

The Queen is the country's longest-reigning monarch, making the Platinum Jubilee the first-ever in history. The palace has chosen to celebrate in June rather than February in the hope of better weather. The four-day bank holiday will begin Thursday, June 2, 2022. The Trooping of Colour is planned for that day and it is also the day the Platinum Jubilee beacons will be lit across the UK.

On Friday the 3rd of June, there will be a Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen's reign held at St Paul's Cathedral. Earlier in the day on Saturday, the Queen will attend the Derby at Epsom Downs and that evening is when the Platinum Party will take place at Buckingham Palace. The event is being put on by both the palace and the BBC. 

June 4 also marks the first birthday of Prince Harry and Meghan's daughter Lilibet. It remains to be seen if they will be in attendance for the Jubilee celebrations. Read on to learn more about the Platinum Party.

In 2021, Queen Elizabeth's 95th birthday was a very sad one, as she lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, on April 9, less than two weeks before her birthday on April 21. Her big day took place during the official period of mourning for her late husband and the mood was made even more somber by the global pandemic. At the time the UK was in lockdown, which put restrictions on the number of people that could meet.

What's more, although the queen usually spends her actual birthday in April privately with family, typically there are gun salutes across London to mark the occasion publicly. Normally, a 41-gun salute takes place in Hyde Park, a 21-gun salute in Windsor Great Park and the Tower of London does a 62-gun salute. However, because of the pandemic, the gun salutes did not take place in 2021 due to the lockdown, while the royal family was also in mourning at the time. In fact, even the Trooping the Colour parade was canceled last year, which marked only the third time in the queen's reign that the parade didn't take place.

Instead, for Elizabeth's 95th birthday — her first without Prince Philip in over seven decades — the royal family drew up a rota between themselves to keep her company. This included spacing out phone calls over the course of the day so that the monarch wouldn't have to spend her special day alone. According to The Mirror, on the days around her birthday, the queen was also visited by some members of the royal family such as Princess Anne and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, as well as Prince Andrew and Princess Eugenie and her son August.

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Last year, the queen also didn't release a new portrait to the public to mark her birthday, which is a tradition for members of the royal family. She did, however, release a statement and thanked the public for their tributes and messages following the death of Prince Philip. It read:

"I have, on the occasion of my 95th birthday today, received many messages of good wishes, which I very much appreciate."

She added:

"While as a family we are in a period of great sadness, it has been a comfort to us all to see and to hear the tributes paid to my husband, from those within the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and around the world.

"My family and I would like to thank you for all the support and kindness shown to us in recent days. We have been deeply touched, and continue to be reminded that Philip had such an extraordinary impact on countless people throughout his life."

This year, however, the queen released a beautiful portrait to celebrate her 96th birthday. The photo featured two of her fell ponies, named Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale, and a very happy Elizabeth between them.

The photo was captioned,

"Ahead of The Queen’s 96th Birthday tomorrow, @windsorhorse have released a new photograph of Her Majesty. Taken last month in the grounds of Windsor Castle, The Queen is pictured with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale.

Happy Birthday Your Majesty!"

It's unclear how she icelebrated her birthday this year and since pandemic restrictions have eased in the UK, it's possible she will spend the day with some of her family members. Interestingly, the queen celebrates her birthday twice in a year! 

According to the BBC, the royal tradition of celebrating two birthdays was created during King George II's reign in 1748. Since his birthday was in November, he decided to have a large public celebration in June instead, when he could make use of the great summer weather. It made perfect sense to do so and the royal family has celebrated each ruling monarch's birthday in this way ever since.

Trooping the Colour, the event that usually takes place on the second Saturday of June, is a large parade that features over 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians. The Royal Air Force even puts on an aerial display for all to enjoy. A big parade takes place that begins at Buckingham Palace — Her Majesty's official residence — and moves to Horse Guards Parade at Whitehall, along The Mall, and finally Downing Street, before turning back again. The royal family then gathers on a balcony at Buckingham Palace in order to greet the crowd that has gathered below. 

On her actual birthday on April 21, the Queen mostly spends it privately with family, while gun salutes across London mark the occasion publicly. Normally, a 41-gun salute takes place in Hyde Park, a 21-gun salute in Windsor Great Park, and the Tower of London does a 62-gun salute. 

The queen has already released a new portrait to mark the beginning of her Jubilee celebrations.

While the queen had to miss these lovely events for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, 2022's grand celebration of her "life of service" is set to be the best one yet. We wish Her Majesty the best for all her upcoming events! 

Did you know why the Queen celebrates two birthdays? If you learned something new about this, pass it on so others can find out too!