Queen Elizabeth will Celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 2012
In the Diamond Jubilee Year of 2012, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the throne.
Countries in the Commonwealth around the world, awarded many Diamond Jubilee Medals throughout the year; plus holidays, events and festivals were held in celebration of such a wonderful reign.
The Queen of England wished for us to all be reminded of "the power of togetherness" when she travelled across the globe in 2012; Queen Elizabeth visited the seven countries to which she is still Queen and helped set up The Diamond Jubilee Trust which was successful in supporting charitable organizations that focus on three things: disease, promoting culture and providing education.
Guidelines required for the jubilee, included the idea that the use of public funds should be minimized and people should not be forced to celebrate, however a great many did come out to honour this iconic lady.
Members of the royal family visited British Overseas Territories and other places in the Commonwealth, thus a 62-gun salute was mounted on Accession Day beside the banks of the Thames River, near the Tower of London.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall toured Australia where the Royal Australian Mint released a silver proof 50 cent coin to celebrate the jubilee year, while Prince Harry managed to tour Belize, Jamaica and The Bahamas in the West Indies; thus making sure that royal family members were on all four corners of the globe, for this wonderful period in English history.
The Spring Bank Holiday in 2012 was moved to the 4th June and an extra holiday took place on Tuesday the 5th; the Diamond Jubilee coincided with the Queen’s official holiday, thus Gary Barlow (the singer-songwriter) organized a marvellous concert for the jubilee weekend.
When a maritime parade of boats sailed along the River Thames on the 3rd June, 2013 it was the largest flotilla to be seen on the river for 350 years making one wonderful pageant - the Queen was carried down the Thames by a special barge while street parties took place all across the country.
Greenwich in South London was bestowed Royal Borough status to mark the jubilee and the Olympic Park was renamed the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park following the 2012 Olympic Games.
Many other exciting things were included in the celebrations: 60 special jubilee woodlands were established by the Woodland Trust with the help of the Wildlife Trust; the Royal Commonwealth Society built a special jubilee time capsule for future generations to see and at Buckingham Palace (the Queen’s official residence) a display of pricelessroyal diamonds, plus other jewels were on show to members of the public - fitting really for a diamond jubilee!
The Queen had already visited Norfolk in 2012 (which is one of the first places the monarch went to after acceding the throne sixty years before in 1952) by the time of the festivities; officially addressing Parliament in Westminster was part of the formal procedure required the same way as she did on her silver and golden jubilees - it could only be described as a sensational weekend filled with jubilation!
