The Queen’s Birthday long weekend is almost here, but do you ever really consider Her Majesty while you’re enjoying a sleep in on your extra day off?
Every June, we celebrate the old girl’s birthday with a much welcome long weekend.
By this stage each year winter has well and truly kicked in and most of us, having lost touch with our skin under all those layers and cursing our 6am alarm in the freezing cold darkness of our bedroom, are suffering from the cold weather blues.
A Monday morning sleep in is just what we need to return us from the brink of despair. We’re thrilled just to be home, do we really care why?
Whether you’re travelling to the snow to celebrate the start of the ski season, making a trip to the country to plant yourself in front of a cosy country fire or just staying put for some much needed R&R, most people already know what this holiday means to them. We ask you, does thinking about the queen ever figure into your plans?
As the Queen of the Commonwealth realms, Elizabeth II is the official head of Australia. You might be interested to know that the queen’s actual birthday is April 21, 1926, although her official birthday is celebrated on a range of dates in different countries and territories.
Why do we celebrate in June if her birthday is in April? The monarch’s birthday was first celebrated in Australia in 1788 when Governor Arthur Phillip declared a public holiday in honour of King George III. Originally, celebrations were always held on the king or queen’s actual birthday but, after the death of King George V in 1936, the date remained close to his birthday, which was June 3.
The only real civic events that are directly associated with the day is the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, which announces new Australians who have achieved an Order of Australia and other official distinctions — so how ‘royal’ is this public holiday?
