Canada to celebrate Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with town criers, pipe bands
Global News
Canada is preparing to honour the 95-year-old royal with a series of tributes to mark her 70 years on the throne.
The Queen has made no secret of her affection for Canada, which she has visited 22 times during almost seven decades on the throne
Now Canada is preparing to honour the 95-year-old royal – Canada’s head of state and the world’s longest serving monarch – with a series of tributes to mark her 70 years on the throne, including the lighting of a giant beacon in Ottawa.
The beacon is one of 1,500 that will be lit in the capitals of every Commonwealth country and across the U.K. on June 2.
COVID-19 means the Platinum Jubilee celebrations may prove more muted than Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee in 1977, which included street parties and concerts, her 2002 Golden Jubilee or her 2012 Diamond Jubilee.
But a blueprint has already been drawn up in London, England, for events throughout the Commonwealth, including Canada.
The anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne falls on Feb. 6 but most celebrations are being organized for the first week of June because the weather is better. Celebrations for her previous jubilees all took place in the summer.
In Canada, the plans for June 2 include having town criers at 2 p.m. in cities across the country proclaim “oyez oyez” before reciting a specially-scripted proclamation in honour of the Queen’s historic reign, and to announce the lighting of jubilee beacons that evening.
Just before Ottawa’s beacon is lit, buglers will play a bugle call written for the jubilee named “Majesty.” Before that, bagpipers from British Columbia to the Maritimes will play a composition by a champion piper entitled “Diu Regnare” – Latin for “long to reign”.