Happy Birthday, Ma'am
Queen Elizabeth was born in April -- but the official monarch's birthday is always in June. (The weather's better for the celebrations.) One of the biggest and most colorful celebrations is the "Trooping of the Color", held at the Horseguard Parade -- a large parade field just behind the Admiralty building and the Horseguard barracks.
It's an elaborate military ceremony, involving all the army units which (on a rotating basis) form the household guard. These are all regular, serving soldiers, who are fully trained for combat, but who also have mastered the art of military ceremony. To give more tourists the chance to see the ceremony, it is repeated on three successive Saturdays.
The first Saturday is called the Major General's Review; the second is the Colonels' Review and the third is the Birthday Parade -- but all three ceremonies are the same. Although, in the case of the Colonel's Review this year (which we attended), the Queen did not take the review -- Prince Charles acted in her place.
The ceremony goes back several centuries and represents an old tradition (what doesn't in the UK)? Each regiment had its own regimental "color" -- or flag -- and it was considered a great disgrace for a unit to lose its flag in battle. The regimental color served as a rallying point for the troops in that regiment during a battle and if the color bearer were killed or wounded someone else always took the color. It was, then, very important that all the soldiers in a regiment know what their regiment's "color" looked like and that they could recognize it in the stress and smoke of battle. So, periodically, the regiment was assembled in ranks and a junior officer (an Ensign* in rank) "trooped the color" -- carrying it slowly down each rank of the regiment so each soldier could get a close look at it.
*Interstingly, an Ensign in centuries past, was a junior infantry officer; today it is the lowest commisioned officer rank in the US Navy (and some others). The national flag flown from a Naval ship is also called an "ensign" or, usually, the "national ensign" in the USN. (In the Royal Navy, the ships fly a distinctive form of the national flag called the "White Ensign" and British merchant ships fly the "Red Ensign". [By the way, from the dictionary: 1 : a flag that is flown (as by a ship) as the symbol of nationality 3 a : an infantry officer of what was formerly the lowest commissioned rank b : a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard ranking above a chief warrant officer and below a lieutenant junior grade.]
We took a number of pictures of the "Trooping the Color" ceremony and they can be seen at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1559020
It's an elaborate military ceremony, involving all the army units which (on a rotating basis) form the household guard. These are all regular, serving soldiers, who are fully trained for combat, but who also have mastered the art of military ceremony. To give more tourists the chance to see the ceremony, it is repeated on three successive Saturdays.
The first Saturday is called the Major General's Review; the second is the Colonels' Review and the third is the Birthday Parade -- but all three ceremonies are the same. Although, in the case of the Colonel's Review this year (which we attended), the Queen did not take the review -- Prince Charles acted in her place.
The ceremony goes back several centuries and represents an old tradition (what doesn't in the UK)? Each regiment had its own regimental "color" -- or flag -- and it was considered a great disgrace for a unit to lose its flag in battle. The regimental color served as a rallying point for the troops in that regiment during a battle and if the color bearer were killed or wounded someone else always took the color. It was, then, very important that all the soldiers in a regiment know what their regiment's "color" looked like and that they could recognize it in the stress and smoke of battle. So, periodically, the regiment was assembled in ranks and a junior officer (an Ensign* in rank) "trooped the color" -- carrying it slowly down each rank of the regiment so each soldier could get a close look at it.
*Interstingly, an Ensign in centuries past, was a junior infantry officer; today it is the lowest commisioned officer rank in the US Navy (and some others). The national flag flown from a Naval ship is also called an "ensign" or, usually, the "national ensign" in the USN. (In the Royal Navy, the ships fly a distinctive form of the national flag called the "White Ensign" and British merchant ships fly the "Red Ensign". [By the way, from the dictionary: 1 : a flag that is flown (as by a ship) as the symbol of nationality 3 a : an infantry officer of what was formerly the lowest commissioned rank b : a commissioned officer in the navy or coast guard ranking above a chief warrant officer and below a lieutenant junior grade.]
We took a number of pictures of the "Trooping the Color" ceremony and they can be seen at:
http://chuck.smugmug.com/gallery/1559020
posted by Chuck and Kathi Calvano @ 6:53 PM
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