June 1, 2012

Millions of people across the United Kingdom are preparing for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee, a celebration of her 60 years on the throne. Elizabeth became queen when her father, King George VI, died in 1952. She has reigned longer than any other British monarch with the exception of her great-great grandmother, Victoria, who ruled from 1937 to 1901. Her diamond jubilee was celebrated in 1897.

The festivities include two national holidays, on June 4 and 5. The main events marking the Diamond Jubilee include a pageant on the Thames River on June 3. The pageant will feature a flotilla (a fleet of small ships) of 1,000 boats escorting the queen down the river. The queen’s party, aboard the royal barge, Spirit of Chartwell, will include her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, her son Prince Charles, and his sons, William and Harry.

On the night of June 3, a televised Diamond Jubilee concert will be performed in the Buckingham Palace park. Among other artists, Elton John, Tom Jones, Annie Lennox, Paul McCartney, and Stevie Wonder will perform. The concert will end with the lighting of more than 4,000 beacons around the world to mark the 60 years of the queen’s reign.

The celebration will culminate on June 5 with a national service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral. At the service, the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will be joined by 57 members of the royal family, current and former prime ministers, senior military and religious figures, and dignitaries from around the world.

Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, waves to a joyous crowd in London in 2002 on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, which marked the 50th anniversary of her reign. In 2012, she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee. (AP/Wide World)

The queen and members of the royal family will return to Buckingham Palace on June 5 in a carriage procession. She will travel in the open-topped 1902 State Landau carriage, used for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding procession in 2011. The procession will end with the queen making an appearance on the balcony at the palace as the Royal Air Force stages a jet fly over.

With millions of people expected to crowd into London for the events, train companies are adding extra cars to their London-bound trains to meet demand. Eurostar reports a 30-percent increase in bookings for the weekend. (Eurostar is the high-speed railway service connecting London with Paris and Brussels through the tunnel under the English Channel.) Officials at Heathrow expect 410,000 people to pass through the airport over the weekend.

Retailers report amazing sales in anticipation of the celebration. Sales of picnic or party paper ware are up 182 percent at the grocery chain Sainsbury’s, which has also sold 364 miles (585 kilometers) of Union Jack flag bunting. (Bunting is long pieces of cloth having the colors and designs of a flag, used to decorate buildings and streets on holidays and special occasions.) The famous London luxury store Marks & Spencer (M&S) has sold more than 50,000 commemorative jubilee biscuit (cookie) tins and is expecting to sell nearly 10 million servings of strawberries. M&S has sold enough bunting to line London’s Mall– down which the carriage procession will travel–155 times.

Additional World Book articles:

• Royal family of the United Kingdom
• The Queen Mother: Creator of the Modern Monarchy (a special report)