page_title: Trooping the Colour
section_title: Sovereign's official birthday
hierarchical_section_title: Trooping the Colour / Sovereign's official birthday
caption_attribution_description: English: The Trooping the Colour ceremony, at Horse Guards Parade, June 1956. The Grenadier Guards troop their Colour.
context_page_description: Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although its roots go back much earlier. On the battlefield, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points. Consequently, regiments would have their ensigns slowly march with their colours between the ranks to enable soldiers to recognise their regiments' colours.
  Since 1748, Trooping the Colour has also marked the official birthday of the British sovereign. It is held in London annually on the second Saturday in June at Horse Guards Parade by St James's Park, and coincides with the publication of the Birthday Honours List. Among the audience are the Royal family, invited guests, ticket holders and the general public. The ceremony is broadcast live by the BBC within the UK and is also shown in Germany, Austria and Belgium and via live streaming on BritBox in both the United States and Canada. In the parade of 2018, Associated Press provided live streaming of the event to viewers across the world on the Time magazine YouTube channel and the Facebook page of the British newspaper The Telegraph.
context_section_description: In the United Kingdom, Trooping the Colour is also known as the Queen's Birthday Parade. It has marked the official birthday of the sovereign since 1748, and has occurred annually since 1820 (except in bad weather, periods of mourning and other exceptional circumstances). From the reign of King Edward VII, the sovereign has taken the salute in person. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather (his actual birthday being in November). From 1979 to 2017 it was always held on the Saturday falling between 11–17 June; however, in 2018 it was held on 9 June and in 2019 on 8 June.
  Trooping the Colour allows the troops of the Household Division to pay a personal tribute to the sovereign with great pomp and pageantry. Crowds lining the route and in St. James's Park listen to music performed by both massed and mounted bands.
  The Queen has attended Trooping the Colour in every year of her reign, except in 1955 when the event was cancelled due to a national rail strike. In 2020, a modified ceremony at Windsor Castle took place due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Formerly riding a horse, she has been riding in a carriage since 1987. On 13 June 1981, she and her horse were startled by an unemployed youth, Marcus Sarjeant, who fired six blank rounds from a starting revolver.
  In her years attending on horseback, Her Majesty, as Colonel-in-Chief, wore a biretta and a Guards Regiment uniform with the medals she was awarded before becoming Queen (Order of the Crown of India; Defence Medal; War Medal 1939–1945; King George V Silver Jubilee Medal; King George VI Coronation Medal; Canadian Forces Decoration) and the riband and star of the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle or a combination of those orders, depending which regiment was trooping its colour. Since 1987, she has not worn uniform, but wears the Brigade of Guards badge, a large brooch representing the different regiments that participate (Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards, Welsh Guards, Irish Guards, and Scots Guards).
  Her 80th birthday in 2006 was marked by a large flypast of 40 planes led by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and culminating with the Red Arrows. It was followed by the first feu de joie ("fire of joy") fired in her presence during her reign, a second being fired at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012. In 2008, a flypast of 55 aircraft commemorated the RAF's 90th anniversary.
caption: Trooping the Colour in 1956
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