Commonwealth Day 2020: Date, History, Significance, and Theme of Former Empire Day

Commonwealth Day, supplanting the former Empire Day, is the annual festival of the Commonwealth of Nations, often held on the second Monday in March. Commonwealth Day 2020 will be praised on 9 March with events across 5 mainlands including flag parades, church services, poetry mornings, dance performances and significantly more.

Commonwealth Day is an annual celebration saw by individuals everywhere throughout the Commonwealth in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Americas, the Pacific and Europe.

It is marked by an Anglican service in Westminster Abbey, typically went to by Queen Elizabeth II as Head of the Commonwealth alongside the Commonwealth Secretary-General and Commonwealth High Commissioners in London. The Queen delivers an address to the Commonwealth, which is communicated all through the world.

The current year’s event is based on the theme ‘Delivering a Common Future’, featuring how the 54 member nations in the Commonwealth family are ‘innovating, connecting and transforming’ to help accomplish some of its greatest goals like ensuring natural resources and boosting trade.

Numerous individuals mark Commonwealth Day with a flag-raising ceremony. If you are hosting a flag-raising ceremony, you can read out the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth’s message on the importance of raising the Commonwealth flag on Commonwealth Day.

The Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, will join Secretary-General Patricia Scotland at Westminster Abbey for a multi-faith service to praise the day.

Features will incorporate presentations from West-End star Alexandra Burke, and multi-platinum, multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, Craig David.

World heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua will likewise talk at the service.

Commonwealth Day is a public holiday in certain parts of the Commonwealth, however not present in Britain.

What is Commonwealth Day?

Commonwealth Day is an annual festival of the Commonwealth of Nations – 53 nations that were beforehand a part of the British Empire, as well as Britain itself and its abroad domains.

Sixteen of these states despite everything perceive the British Queen as their ruler.

Altogether, it is celebrated by more than 2 billion individuals or about 33% of the world’s populace.

After Queen Victoria died in 1901, her birthday (24 May) was anointed Empire Day. It was celebrated in nations all around the Empire as a patriotic holiday, re-enforcing the possibility of the greatness of the British Empire.

In 1925, an Empire Day thanksgiving service was held at Wembley Stadium and pulled in 90,000 individuals.

It proceeded until 1958 when Prime Minister Harold MacMillan reported that it would be renamed Commonwealth Day.

Commonwealth Day History

In 1958, Harold Macmillan declared in Parliament the renaming of Empire Day as Commonwealth Day.

The Commonwealth and Britain have a shared history, cultural links, common legal systems, and business practices. Following a 1973 proposal by the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Commonwealth Secretariat chose the second Monday in March as the date on which Commonwealth Day is watched all through all nations of the Commonwealth.

Commonwealth Day is certainly not a statutory holiday; rather it is a day of recognition by around one billion individuals of their common bonds and the contribution of the Commonwealth of Nations to the making of an agreeable global environment.

Toward the finish of the nineteenth century, when the British Empire was apparently at its peak, Empire Day was built up in Canada. The holiday was held on the last school day before Queen Victoria’s birthday, May 24th.

Following the demise of Queen Victoria in 1901, the holiday developed in ubiquity over the empire. The horrors of the First World War changed how the holiday ought to be praised, with it becoming more a day of recognition.

With the surge for independence from the empire in the late 1950s, the British prime minister Harold MacMillan declared that Empire Day would be changed to Commonwealth Day. In 1976, the date of the holiday was changed to the Second Monday in March. This date was picked as no Commonwealth nation had a public holiday on that day and almost all nations had school terms.

The Commonwealth was established on December eleventh, 1931.

The day is marked by a Commonwealth Service held at Westminster Abbey in London.

Commonwealth Day 2020: Theme

Every year a particular theme is picked for Commonwealth Day. The 2020 theme is ‘Delivering a Common Future: Connecting, Innovating, Transforming’.

This theme was picked because the governments and individuals of our diverse family of 54 Commonwealth nations associate at numerous levels through broad and deep-rooted networks of companionship and goodwill.

Together, the nations and individuals of the Commonwealth handle environmental change and its effects. We work to discover sustainable methods for using the natural resources of our planet, its territory, and the ocean with the goal that our environment is protected.

Together, we work to construct peace and harmony through social and democratic improvements.

Together, we encourage comprehensive economic empowerment and fair trade with the goal that all individuals, especially women, youngsters and those in minimized communities can share the products of progress and success.

Together, we are delivering a common future by connecting, innovating and transforming our societies.

How is Commonwealth Day celebrated?

Commonwealth Day keeps on being praised by countries around the globe, with road parties, parades, debates, flag-raising ceremonies and a wide range of other happy exercises.

While it’s not a public holiday in Britain, it is in nations like Gibraltar.

The official festival sees the Queen and different individuals from the royal family going to a multi-faith ceremony highlighting agents from every one of the Commonwealth’s member states.

It has just been affirmed that Prince Andrew will be missing from the current year’s ceremony following the ongoing contention encompassing his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The service starts with a parade of every state’s flag and highlights readings and music from around the Commonwealth.

Observances of this day are not uniform over the 53 member states; implying that every nation watches the day in its specific manner. For example, in the UK the day is frequently begun with the Union Jack flying over government buildings and a special speech given by the Queen. Individuals from the Royal Family – including the Queen – usually attend special services on this day too.

In Canada, the Canadian Flag is usually flown close by the Union Jack to honor the day. In any case, on the off chance that the flag pole isn’t sufficiently large to oblige two flags, at that point usually just the Canadian Flag is flown.

In some of the British possessions in the Caribbean, special flag-raising ceremonies are performed to celebrate the day. On these occasions, the Queen’s message to the Commonwealth is usually read so anyone might hear to those in participation on these occasions.