Queen Elizabeth II will not be entitled to the traditional military parade to celebrate her birthday, the ceremony being canceled for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic, Buckingham Palace said on Friday.
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The monarch will be 95 years old on April 21, a birthday traditionally celebrated in June with a large military parade in central London, called the “Salute to the Colors” and bringing together hundreds of soldiers and thousands of spectators.
This ceremony has its origins in the preparations for war, with all the flags being shown to the soldiers so that they will recognize them in the confusion of the fighting.
To replace this annual event, a parade at Windsor Castle, some forty kilometers west of London, is planned.
Last year, the ceremony was also canceled and replaced with a scaled-down event at Windsor Castle, where Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip, 99, have retreated since March 2020, when the pandemic hit the UK.
The disease has since claimed more than 126,000 lives in the country, the hardest hit in Europe.
Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were vaccinated in January against COVID-19.
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was released from hospital in London on Tuesday after a month in hospital during which he was treated for an infection and then a heart problem.