Brits find 90 reasons to celebrate this year
ROYAL BIRTHDAY: Queen’s milestone approaching
LONDON — The Queen turns 90 Thursday, but she is not planning a major, fireworks-filled celebration to mark the occasion. A gentle stroll outside the grounds of Windsor Castle, the lighting of a beacon and a night at home with family are on the royal plate.
The Queen will save the pomp and ceremony for her next birthday. The monarch gets two birthdays each year, one on the actual date of her birth (April 21) and one official birthday in June, when there is at least a reasonable hope of dry, sunny parade weather.
Her customary reticence hasn’t kept the British media from going slightly bonkers at the approaching milestone. One television station has already aired a celebratory Our Queen at 90 documentary to pump up its Easter ratings and Tatler magazine put the Queen on its cover, forgoing the youthful socialites who are the typical cover fare.
The birthday events Thursday can be considered a dress rehearsal for the official celebrations planned in early June. It also opens the door to a rolling birthday season that will last a full six weeks.
“June is when everything is happening. That’s the great big extravaganza, the street parties and everything,” said Sophia MoneyCoutts, Tatler’s features director.
“It’s just a golden moment for the whole family after a tricky few years. And the Queen is the figurehead of all that with the line of succession pretty assured. They are going through a glorious period.”
The Queen’s popularity holds for many in Canada as well, as a majority of respondents to a recent survey were supportive of the Queen as the country’s monarch.
The Angus Reid Institute polled Canadians’ on their views of the monarchy and its key players. Some 64 per cent of respondents indicated they support continuing to recognize Elizabeth as Queen, but only 46 per cent would support recognizing Prince Charles as king.
The Queen seems oddly impervious to time. If she is tired, it doesn’t show. She has softened her schedule and cut back on gruelling plane journeys, but shows no sign of physical or mental frailty.
Neither does her 94-year-old husband Prince Philip, despite several serious health scares that included a medical intervention to open clogged heart arteries.
Both still seem to be going strong, although their children and grandchildren are increasingly stepping in to handle royal duties.