Happy Birthday, Queenie
To many people Queen’s Birthday simply means an extra day off work and a long weekend, but what exactly is Queen’s Birthday all about? And why is it never held on the actual date of The Queen’s birth?
While New Zealand celebrations commemorating the birth of The Queen traditionally fall on the first Monday in June each year, The Queen was actually born on April 21, 1926. The Queen’s official birthday is celebrated on a different day in each of her Commonwealth countries, and none of these celebrate it on the same date every year. If you’re confused, you’re not the only one.
The Skeleton Key video The tradition of having an official Queen’s Birthday date begun centuries ago, when outdoor celebrations to commemorate the birth of Monarchs with winter birthdays were ruined by cold, wet weather. The official celebrations of their birthdays were shifted to warmer summer months when parades and marches would be more welcome.
Which is ironic, given commonwealth countries in the Southern Hemisphere like New Zealand and Australia still celebrate Queen’s Birthday about the same time as in the Northern Hemisphere, which happens to be in our winter.
It may be a confusing holiday, but thanks to Her Majesty The Queen all of New Zealand’s working public are entitled to a public holiday paid day off or paid day in lieu on Monday 1 June this year in accordance with the Holidays Act.
Who wouldn’t want to celebrate that?
May 23rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
It’s a meaningless holiday. No-one in New Zealand celebrates it because of its links to the monarchy, apart from perhaps a few die hard monarchists. The rest of us are just thankful for our last long weekend before Labour Day.
The holiday is a joke – it’s not even the Queen’s actual birthday (that’s April 21). They don’t even celebrate it in the UK.
Instead, we should have a winter solstice holiday, or perhaps a celebration of Matariki… a holiday actually unique to New Zealand.