The Queen's Diamond Jubilee

This weekend witnessed the start of the multi-day celebrations to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.  She became queen in 1952 following the death of her father George VI. Now 86, the Queen's role as head of state still keeps her busy as ever, though in recent years, she has deferred many responsibilities to her son and heir Prince Charles and the rest of her immediate family. For this weekend though, the Queen took center stage to receive her nation's tribute to her 60 years on the throne. (for Wikipedia.org page, click here)

Her Majesty's Official Logo (Source)

Her Majesty's government has decreed that Britain will observe both a scheduled bank holiday today, June 4 as well as an extra bank holiday on Tuesday, June 5, creating a four-day weekend for the festivities. The Brits have their work cut out for them this summer, with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee this month and the beginning to the 2012 London Olympic Games at the end of July. Planning for both events has been ongoing for years.

The party kicked-off on Sunday with the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant:  a 1,000 ship flotilla up the River Thames accompanied by the Queen on a royal barge. The Guinness World Records folks pronounced it the world's largest parade of boats, and the BBC gave it four hours of coverage.  Early reports in today's newspapers indicate that many t.v. viewers were unhappy with the number of on-shore interviews and lack of attention to the various boats and musical performers.  However, the flotilla itself was viewed as a rousing success.  The London Metropolitan Police reported crowds on the riverbank of approximately 1-1.5 million with only a handful of arrests.

 

Rowed boats in the flotilla. (Source: Wikipedia)

A large outdoor concert was held in from of Buckingham Palace this afternoon, and a who's-who of British talent paid tribute to the Queen. Tom Jones made an appearance to remind the world that he's actually Welsh, and Sir Paul McCartney was even trotted out to play a couple of hits and then promptly put back into storage. 

With her yellow earplugs, the Queen loudly states that "we are not amused." (Source)

Tomorrow, the final day of festivities, will see the Queen attend a formal lunch at Westminster Hall, return to Buckingham Palace in a royal carriage procession complete with 60-gun salute, and finally receive a flypast from the Royal Air Force from the palace balcony.

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Here in Oxford, local Anglicans marked the Jubilee with a special service at Christ Church cathedral on Saturday, May 27th.  Over at the Town Hall, city officials commemorated the Jubilee this afternoon with a special in full ceremonial regalia.