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Commonwealth Day is the annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations held on the second Monday in March, and which is marked by a multi-faith service in Westminster Abbey normally attended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth Secretary-General and the Commonwealth High Commissioners in London. The Queen delivers an address to the Commonwealth which is broadcast throughout the world on the BBC.
While it has a certain official status, Commonwealth Day is not a public holiday in most Commonwealth countries and there is very little public awareness of it.
History
After the death in 1901 of Queen Victoria, the first British Monarch who used the style Emperor/Empress of India (in chief of the British position as Paramount ruler) in addition to the royal title of the UK, her birthday, May 24, was made an annual commemoration under the name Empire Day. This day was celebrated with families lighting fireworks in their back-gardens or attending community bonfires. It gave Australians a chance to show their pride in being part of the British Empire.
In 1958 Empire Day was renamed Commonwealth Day, in accordance with the new post-colonial form of the forum of Realms, kingdoms, and republics bound by the former rule of the British crown.
The National Council in Canada of the Royal Commonwealth Society expressed in a letter to then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, in 1973, that Commonwealth Day should be observed on the same day throughout all the countries of the Commonwealth. They asked that this notion be incuded on the agenda of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in Ottawa that year. The item appeared on the agenda of the 1975 meeting, and it was agreed that the Commonwealth Secretariat select a date, preferably one without previous historical connotations. At the meeting of Secretariat officials in Canberra in 1976 the Canadian propsal of the second Monday in March was adopted.
In 2006 Queen Elizabeth II delivered her Commonwealth Day address from St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney, Australia.
Other holidays
Although Commonwealth Day is not widely known, many Commonwealth countries do have at least one public holiday that celebrates the Sovereign's birthday.
In Australia and New Zealand and some other countries, there is a Queen's Birthday holiday.
In Canada and some parts of Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh and Dundee, the Monday on or before May 24 is still a public holiday known as Victoria Day.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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