Easy News: Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Platinum Jubilee

1. 

   Over the bank holiday weekend of 2 – 5 June, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Platinum Jubilee. This means she has been Queen of the United Kingdom for 70 years.

2. 

   The Queen has headed the Royal family longer than any other British King or Queen. The second longest was Queen Victoria, who was on the throne for over 63 years.

3. 

   The official 70 year anniversary was in February, but the celebrations were moved to June so people could have a four-day bank holiday weekend and the days would be longer and warmer.

4. 

   Millions of people in the UK and around the world celebrated the event and it was shown live on TV and social media.

5. 

   The events included trooping the colour which is a special ceremony held by the British Army.

6. 

   There was also a parade of 10,000 people, called a pageant, with dancing and people dressed in clothes from different times in history from the 1950s, when the Queen first came into power.

7. 

   A big concert was also held, where singers including Elton John, Rod Stewart and Diana Ross performed.

8. 

   Over 200,000 local events were held by people wanting to join in with the celebrations, including street parties.

9. 

   Over the last year, the Queen has started to let her son, Prince Charles, take over some of her usual roles in public.

10. 

    This is because the Royal family works on a hereditary system. This means that the next King or Queen will usually be the eldest child of the current King or Queen.

11. 

    Some people do not like having a Royal family heading the UK and would prefer the public got to vote for elected heads of state.

12. 

    But even people who do not like the idea of the Royals agree that the Queen has done a very good job.

13. 

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