Buckingham Palace
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The Queen's Diamond Jubilee
- Why & When
- Main Events
- Other Events
Why and When?
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II is the international celebration throughout 2012 marking 60 years of the Queen's reign.
She came to the throne on 6th February 1952 upon the death of her father, King George VI.
Queen Victoria, in 1897, is the only other monarch in the history of the United Kingdom to have celebrated a Diamond Jubilee.
The main celebrations will centre around an extended weekend on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June, with the late May bank holiday having been moved to Monday 4 June and an additional Jubilee bank holiday being held on Tuesday 5 June.
Incidentally, the British logo for the Diamond Jubilee resulted from a contest held by the BBC children's programme Blue Peter, the winning design being created by ten-year-old Katherine Dewar.
Main Events
2nd June Trooping the Colour.
A maritime parade of 1,000 boats along the River Thames is scheduled to take place on 3 June - the largest flotilla to be seen on the river in 350 years - and around one million people are expected to watch this Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant from the banks. The Queen and other members of the Royal family will be carried down the Thames on a special royal barge.
The following day on the 4th of june, a concert, organised and produced by singer-songwriter Gary Barlow on behalf of the BBC, will be held at Buckingham Palace and will be attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family.
Ten thousand members of the public will be selected to receive free tickets as the result of a national ballot.
Thousands of beacons will also be lit around the world.
On Tuesday, 5 June, The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will attend a national Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
As the fourth annual Big Lunch will fall on the same weekend as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, anyone who would like to celebrate is encouraged to do so by holding a Big Jubilee Lunch!
Other Events
There are also other notable events leading up to the Diamond Jubilee Weekend.
For example, on Monday 12 March The Queen will attend Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey, along with the Prime Minister, High Commissioners and more than a thousand schoolchildren from throughout the UK,
and she will address both houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall on 20 March.
Dancers, musicians, military and equestrian displays from around the world will come together for three nights in the private grounds of Windsor Castle on 10, 11 and 13 May, while on Saturday the 19th, nearly 2,500 troops from the Royal Navy, the Army and the Royal Air Force will parade through Windsor Castle and town before Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh.
They will then muster in the castle grounds for a unique event before an audience of more than 3,000 Armed Forces personnel, their families, and veterans.