United Kingdom
It has been celebrated in the United Kingdom since 1748. There, the Queen's Official Birthday is now celebrated on the first, second, or third Saturday in June, although it is rarely the third. Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, and whose birthday was on 9 November, in autumn, after 1908 moved the ceremony to summer in the hope of good weather.
The day is marked in London by the ceremony of Trooping the Colour, which is also known as the Queen's Birthday Parade. The list of Birthday Honours is also announced at the time of the Official Birthday celebrations. In British diplomatic missions, the day is treated as the National Day of the United Kingdom. Although it is not celebrated as a specific public holiday in the UK (as it is not a working day), some civil servants are given a "privilege day" at this time of year, which is often merged with the Spring Bank Holiday (last Monday in May) to create a long weekend, which was partly created to celebrate the monarch's birthday.
Read more about this topic: Queen's Official Birthday
Famous quotes containing the words united and/or kingdom:
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“I’ll give my jewels for a set of beads,
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage,
...
And my large kingdom for a little grave,
A little, little grave, an obscure grave.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)