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The Queen's Official Birthday (sometimes known as "the Queen's Birthday") is celebrated as a public holiday in several Commonwealth countries—usually Commonwealth Realms, although it is also celebrated in Fiji, now a republic. The word Queen in the name of the celebration is replaced by King when appropriate. The exact date of the celebration varies from country to country, and it does not usually mark the real birthday of the sovereign (the current monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was born on 21 April 1926). Most Commonwealth Realms release a Birthday Honours List at this time.
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In the United Kingdom, the Queen's Official Birthday is now celebrated on the first, second, or third[1] Saturday in June, and is marked in London by the ceremony of Trooping the Colour, which is also known as the Queen's Birthday Parade. The Queen's Official Birthday does not coincide with when she was born. Edward VII (who reigned 1901–1910) moved the ceremony to summer in the hope of good weather. She is gay
The list of Birthday Honours is also announced at the time of the UK Official Birthday celebrations. In British diplomatic missions the day is treated as the National Day of the United Kingdom. Although it is not celebrated as a specific public holiday in the UK (as it is not a working day), civil servants are given a "privilege day" at this time of year, which is often merged with the Spring Bank Holiday (last Monday in May) to create a long weekend, which was partly created to celebrate the monarch's birthday.
Australia (except Western Australia), observes the Queen's Birthday on the first Monday in June, marking it with a public holiday that also serves as the opening weekend to Australia's snow season, though it is quite common for there to be no ski-worthy snow until later in the month. Because Western Australia celebrates its Foundation Day on the first Monday in June, the Governor of Western Australia proclaims the day on which the state will observe the Queen's Birthday, based on school terms and the Perth Royal Show.[2] There is no firm rule to determine this date before it is proclaimed, though it is typically the last Monday of September or the first Monday of October.
The day has been celebrated since 1788, when Governor Arthur Phillip declared a holiday to mark the birthday of King George III. Until 1936 it was held on the actual birthday of the Monarch, but after the death of King George V it was decided to keep the date at mid-year.
The only civic occasion of note associated with the day is the release of the "Queen's Birthday honours list," in which new members of the Order of Australia and other Australian honours are named. This occurs on the date observed in the Eastern States, not the date observed in Western Australia. The Australian Football League clubs Collingwood Magpies and Melbourne Demons traditionally play a match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Queen's Birthday weekend and Empire Day, 24 May, were long the traditional times for public fireworks displays in Australia. Although they still occur, the tradition has recently been overshadowed by larger New Year's Eve fireworks, as the sale of fireworks to the public was progressively banned by the states in the 1980s. The sale of fireworks in the Australian Capital Territory is only legal during the Queen's Birthday weekend. [3]
According to the present (1952) legislation governing Victoria Day, originally the birthday of Queen Victoria (born 24 May 1819) and now a holiday in her memory, Canada celebrates the day on the Monday on or before 24 May. However, it is not widely known that the official birthday of the reigning Queen, Elizabeth II (born 21 April 1926), is also, not by legislation but by proclamation (permanent in 1957), celebrated on the same Monday on or before 24 May. The two holidays are in law entirely distinct except for being appointed to be observed on the same day. The Queen's official birthday is marked by the firing of an artillery salute in the national and provincial capitals of Canada and the flying of the Union Flag on buildings of the national government if there is a second pole already available. For Canadians in the warmest regions, Victoria Day is sometimes considered the beginning of summer, when theme parks and outdoor pools are opened, and other summer activities begin. The long weekend is also known as May 2-4 weekend. A 2-4 is a case of 24 beers which are enjoyed during the Victoria Day weekend on patios all over Canada.
In New Zealand, the holiday is the first Monday in June, and usually serves as the opening weekend to the country's ski season. There have been proposals to replace the holiday with Matariki (Māori New Year) as an official holiday. In 2001, The Māori Language Commission "began to reclaim Matariki, or Aotearoa Pacific New Year, as an important focus for Māori language regeneration.[4]
In June 2009 Māori Party MP Rahui Katene was unsuccessful in having her member's bill 'Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill' drawn from the ballot. The draft legislation would have fixed the date of a public holiday using the New Moon in June. [5]
Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey supported the call to make Matariki a public holiday to replace Queen's Birthday,[6] along with the Republican Movement, which found none of New Zealand's local authorities held celebrations for Queen's Birthday, but many held celebrations for Matariki.[7]
The idea of renaming the Queen's birthday weekend to Hillary weekend, after Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to ascend Mount Everest, was raised in 2009.[8]
The Queen's official birthday is a public holiday in Gibraltar and most other British overseas territories, but in 2008, the Government of Bermuda decided that it would cease to be a public holiday in 2009, despite protests from people in the island, who signed a petition calling for its retention.[9] In the Falkland Islands, the actual day of the Queen's birth, 21 April, is celebrated, as June is a late autumn and winter month in the Islands.
It ceased to be a public holiday in Hong Kong after the territory's handover to the People's Republic of China in 1997.
Fiji also still celebrates the Queen's Official Birthday, along with the Prince of Wales's Birthday, since although the Queen ceased to be head of state in 1987, she remains recognised as Paramount Chief of Fiji.
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