Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II asked this year to dispense with an artillery salute on the occasion of its 94th anniversary which will be celebrated on April 21. This was announced on Saturday on Twitter by the editor of the TV channel ITV, Chris Ship, with reference to sources in Buckingham Palace.
According to him, such a request for the first time in 68 years on the throne Elizabeth II spoke, as he felt these celebrations are inappropriate in the context of the pandemic. "We will not celebrate the birthday of Her Majesty some special way this year" – leads the Ship the words of a representative of the office of the monarch.
Traditionally, Elizabeth II celebrates birthday twice. In fact, it falls on April 21 and is not accompanied by special celebrations. Officially birthday (with a parade and public festival) is usually celebrated on the second Saturday of June as this period is established for good weather. As previously reported, traditional in this case, the parade is also cancelled.
Gun salutes in the UK are produced for a number of reasons related to the Royal family. 21 blank volley from the guns of the First world war, in addition to the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, marked the day of her accession to the throne (February 6), coronation day (2 June), the birthday of the husband of Queen Prince Philip (10 June), birthday of heir to the throne Charles, Prince of Wales (14 November), the opening of the sessions of the Parliament. Usually a venue for fireworks stands tower, green Park or Hyde Park. In the latter two cases the number of shots increases by 20, as they are made from Royal parks.
In mid-March for security reasons, Her Majesty, together with the 98-year-old Prince Philip moved from London to a country residence – Windsor castle. Due to the advanced age of the Queen and her husband are at risk, as the disease caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19), often leads to severe complications and death of the elderly.
According to the data published by the British health Ministry on 17 April, over 108.7 thousand people in the country was confirmed infection with the novel coronavirus. The number of deaths reached 14.6 thousand
