New Zealand has celebrated its first King’s Birthday weekend, which is strange because King Charles’ real birthday is in November, New Zealand celebrates it in June. Why? Well, it all has to do with British traditions and the weather!
Just like Queen Elizabeth, King Charles gets the special privilege of celebrating his birthday twice every year. In New Zealand, the Queen’s Birthday Weekend is observed on the first Monday in June, even though her actual birthday is on April 21. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet confirmed that this tradition will continue under King Charles.
But why the two birthdays? It’s because of the unpredictable weather in Britain during the winter. British monarchs who are not born in the summer celebrate their birthday twice. They have their actual birthday celebration and then another official celebration during the British summer.
The second celebration is called the Trooping the Colour parade, which is held in early June outside Buckingham Palace. This parade has been a part of the official birthday celebration for over 270 years! The idea is that having a summer birthday increases the chances of good weather for the parade.
The tradition of the second birthday celebration started with King George II in 1748. Since his November birthday was too cold for a big parade, he decided to tie it in with the Trooping the Colour parade. Later on, during the reign of King Edward VII, who also had a November birthday, the summer “official” birthday celebrations became a standard tradition.
In 2022, the Trooping the Colour parade was held on a Thursday to mark the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee, and people in the UK had a day off. But this year, the parade will be back to its usual schedule on Saturday, June 17.
So, even though King Charles’ real birthday is in November, we still celebrate it in June because of the British tradition of having a second official birthday in the summer. It’s a way to enjoy better weather for the grand celebration!
very interesting
I loved reading it because, I never knew that maybe chocolate might be gone in the future!
save the chocolate…
I enjoyed this reading because
it show what climate changes does!!
they might have to move most chocolate into a colder place, since the climate clock is getting low
so temperature might get higher.
i love chocolate
I’m allergic to dairy, but this makes me sad for my best friends all around NZ (don’t think it’s weird because I actually do). And my chocolate loving cousin, her name is Dana (I’m from South Korea and she told me how to spell her name in Korean but its not pronounced like Dana).
I know that there are chocolate lovers around the world so, poor them or if you like chocolate poor you (even though I’m allergic to dairy, or to make it easy dairy products: cheese, milk, butter etc).