Throughout the Cayman Islands and the United Kingdom, and in Overseas Territories and Commonwealth countries across the globe, celebrations are getting under way to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
As of 3 June 2022, the 96-year-old queen will be the third-longest reigning monarch in the world, having sat on the British throne for 70 years and 117 days.
Only King Bhumibol Adulyadej, known as Rama IX, of Thailand, who reigned for 70 years and 126 days, before his death in 2016, and Louis XIV of France, who was king for 72 years and 110 days, until his death in 1715, have served for longer.
She is the longest reigning British monarch, having surpassed, on 9 Sept. 2015, the 63-year reign of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
Elizabeth II, at the age of 25, ascended the throne on 6 Feb. 1952, the day her father King George VI died. Her official coronation took place on 2 June 1953. An estimated 27 million people in the UK, out of a population of 36 million, watched her coronation on BBC television.
Here in the Cayman Islands, which the queen has visited twice during her reign, a four-day public holiday weekend is being held to mark the celebrations. While several outdoor events had been planned, such as air shows, fireworks, beacon lightings, concerts and an official parade, some have now been postponed due to expected inclement weather. Two scheduled air shows – on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac – which were seeing a return after 20 years, are not going ahead, officials confirmed earlier this week, amid forecasts of heavy rain and lightning.
However, even before the weekend gets under way, a number of events have already been held in Cayman in honour of the queen’s seven decades on the throne.
In the time-honoured tradition of English tea parties, the National Gallery in the grounds of its building, bedecked by Union flag bunting designed by local students, hosted its own tea party last month, where eight finalists of the Youth Services Unit’s all-island high school majesty-themed poetry competition were announced.
Meanwhile, local bakers took part in a culinary competition to determine whose cake would be featured at the Queen’s Birthday Party at Government House on Monday, 6 June. Home baker Anne Frawley was chosen as the winner for her ‘Cayman Sunshine Cake’.
Cayman will also be issuing its own Queen’s Platinum Jubilee stamp this year.
In a social media post, Governor Martyn Roper, the queen’s representative in Cayman, said the planning committee that put together the weekend’s events, led by Cabinet Secretary Sam Rose, “has done us proud”.
“I am confident no other OT has the quality or quantity of events planned as Cayman,” he said.
UK events
In the UK, unsurprisingly, many celebrations are planned for the jubilee weekend.
The long tradition of beacon chains to mark royal events continues across the country, with the main one involving The Tree of Trees (a 70-foot high ‘tree’ constructed of 350 smaller trees), which is due to be lit at Buckingham Palace on Thursday night, 2 June. Thousands of other beacons will be lit by communities, charities and other groups throughout the regions of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories, as well as at all 54 capital cities of the Commonwealth. In Cayman, weather permitting, beacons, or bonfires, were planned to be lit at Pedro St. James and Cayman Brac.
Also in the UK, a ‘Platinum Party at the Palace’, which airs live on the BBC, will feature a night of musical tributes from many famous artists. More than 22,000 people are expected to attend.
Street parties have been long associated with celebrating royal events, and more than 60,000 people in the UK have registered to host big jubilee lunches over the weekend, with bunting-laden events ranging from world record attempts for the longest street party to back-garden BBQs and everything in between. Similar lunches are also being planned throughout the Commonwealth.
Pageantry always plays a major role in royal events and this year is no different. On Sunday, 5 June, a Platinum Jubilee Pageant will be led by the gold state carriage, which carried the queen from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey on the day of her coronation in 1953. Queen Elizabeth II will not personally travel in the carriage at Sunday’s event (she has previously described travelling in the 260-year-old carriage as a “horrible” experience).
Instead, original film footage recorded on Coronation Day, evoking the image of the young queen on that day, will be shown on the carriage windows.
As part of the celebrations, the new 73-mile Crossrail railway line in south-east England, which opened on 24 May, was renamed the Elizabeth Line. The queen visited Paddington, one of the stops along the route on 17 May, to unveil a plaque marking the opening of the line, which was completed three-and-a-half years late and £4billion over its budget.
The Elizabeth Line stretches from Essex in the east of the country through to Berkshire in the west, and comprises an underground section in central London. Ten new stations have been built for this section, connecting Paddington, Bond Street, Liverpool Street and Canary Wharf.
A renaming ceremony in honour of the queen will also be taking place in Australia over the weekend, when on Saturday, 4 May, Aspen Island on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, Australia, will be given its new moniker – Queen Elizabeth II Island.
Click here to see the weekend events in Cayman.
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