Tonight, people from across the borough will be descending on Gedling Country Park to witness the lighting of a beacon to commemorate the Queen’s 90th birthday.
But unlike most of us, the Queen gets to celebrate her birthday twice each year – once on the anniversary of the day she was born, and on an “official” birthday which takes place in June.
The tradition of two birthdays for a monarch was started back in 1748 by George II and started out because of an age-old problem for anyone in Britain: the weather.
George was born in November, and felt the weather was too cold at this time of year to take part in any annual parade to mark the occasion.
Instead, he combined his birthday celebration with the annual summer military parade still known as Trooping The Colour.
The tradition continues to this day and all British sovereigns are given the option of having an “official” birthday, and because her real birthday is on April 21, she continued the tradition of having an “official” birthday in June.
This year Trooping the Colour will be on June 11, the day after the Duke of Edinburgh’s 95th birthday.
