The coronation ceremony for King Charles on Saturday will be the most glorious display of pageantry seen in Britain in a generation, according to its organizers and Buckingham Palace, and will provide an economic boost to the country.
Charles and Camilla will be crowned at Westminster Abbey in a historic event that dates back 1,000 years and involves thousands of military personnel in a mile-long procession through central London.
“This is a proud moment in our national history,” Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal Edward Fitzalan-Howard, England’s most senior peer, said.
“This is also a time to remind ourselves of the pride we have in our great country and our unwritten constitution, which has served us so well for over 1,000 years during our long history,” Fitzalan-Howard, whose family has organized state events since 1483, told reporters.
More than 7,000 armed forces personnel will be involved in ceremonial duties, including a procession from the Abbey back to Buckingham Palace, where the newly-crowned king and queen will be given a royal salute in the gardens.
Fitzalan-Howard described it as a “glorious display of pageantry.” Following the ceremony, the royals will wave to the crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace, and military aircraft will fly overhead.
As previously stated by the palace, the service itself will differ from that of Queen Elizabeth seven decades ago, reflecting the different eras.
There will be only 2,300 guests in Westminster Abbey, as opposed to 8,000 in 1953, but 100 heads of state will still be present, and the ceremony will be much shorter.
Critics have questioned the cost of a lavish coronation at a time when the public is facing a cost of living crisis, but a palace spokesperson stated that more than 1 billion pounds ($1.25 billion) are expected to flow into the struggling economy as a result.
“It’s not for me to say how accurate those figures are, but the theory is that the celebrations are an enormous economic boost to the nation,” the spokesperson said, adding that having so many heads of state in attendance was also a huge networking opportunity.
Pantheon Macroeconomics, a consultancy, predicted that British GDP would fall 0.2% month on month in May, owing to the extra bank holiday that the government has set aside for the coronation.
