Nobody does it quite like the British...they love their official ceremonies and pageants.
Today, the Queen's birthday was officially celebrated with the Trooping of the Colour. This ceremony has taken place since 1748, and consists of a parade with the Queen carried in a Royal Carriage to the Horse Guards Parade. She is met there by her official troops (the Horse Guards in red jackets and big black hats) and the Household Cavalry. It is quite a spectacle because in formation within the Horse Guards Parade are over 1400 officers and men, along with 200 horses and 400 musicians from 10 different bands and corps of drums play as one. At precisely 11am, the Queen takes the Royale Salute and watches the Trooping of the Colour, which is a custom wherein the flag (or colour) is paraded down the ranks of officers and past the Queen and Royal family.
As I stated, this ceremony has taken place since 1748 to mark the "official" celebration of the Soverign. What's very funny about this is that the Queen's actual birthday is on April 21st. However, King Edward VII (who reigned from 1901-1910) decided that he wanted to have the Soverign's birthday "officially" celebrated on either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Saturday in June in order to have a chance at better weather (I'm not kidding). Since then, it has always taken place in June rather than on the actual day of the Soverign's birthday.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Horse Guards Parade to watch this ceremony in person, but rather watched it on the "telly". If any of you are interested in seeing what it looks like, the BBC has a really nice 2 min condensed video of it (seeing that the whole ceremony lasts about an hour). Just go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13737041 to watch.
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