Although her actual birthday is on April, the Queen officially celebrates in in June for this reason.
Each year, Queen Elizabeth has two opportunities to celebrate her birthday, one in April when is her birthdate and the other in June, when the British troops salute their commander in chief with a parade, also known as Trooping the Colour. But, have you ever wondered why? Well, this tradition has to do with gloomy days and dates back to King George II.
The actual birthday of Her Majesty the Queen is on April 21st, however, the official celebrations that, this year marks the Platinum Jubilee, are held every second Saturday of June with the troops’ parade, an airplane demonstration, and many activities already scheduled to celebrate her 70 years on the British throne.
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Why the Queen has two birthdays?
As we mentioned before, the tradition was started by George II in 1748, who decided not to celebrate his actual birthday in November because he considered those days to be too cold and gloomy for a celebratory parade.
Instead, he chose to celebrate his birthday tied with celebrations of the annual Trooping the Colour, a military parade held to remind soldiers of the colors of the flag they are fighting for and defending.
The tradition of moving the birthday celebrations continued with King Edward VII, who also had a November birthday, and who decided to standardize the official birthday celebrations to the second Saturday of June and tied them with the Trooping the Colour parade.
What is Trooping the Colour?
This annual parade is held to ensure every solder is able to recognize their colors, the flag would be marched or ‘trooped’ regularly round the ranks. A regiment’s colors came to have huge significance for serving soldiers, and the gain or loss of colors was seen as decisive moments in battle, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.
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