Queen Elizabeth's 94th birthday celebrated with social distancing

By Masood Sattar Khan
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Queen Elizabeth II, who turned 94 this April, didn’t celebrate it with traditional trooping or the colourful parade. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the queen preferred to celebrate her birthday with a scaled-down, socially distanced ceremony at Windsor Castle. 

On the morning of June 13, the queen watched a performance by a small number of Welsh guardsmen and the band of the Household Division in what was called a mini-trooping. 

The queen had turned 94 back on April 21 but traditionally the second Saturday in June has always been marked her official birthday celebration.

Normally surrounded by family, the queen watched the ceremony alone, flanked by just a few officials, CBS News reported. 

"More spacing between individuals meant that there is also no room for errors and so the soldier has to really concentrate on their own personal drill, reaction to orders, dressing and social distancing," Garrison Seargent Major Warrant Officer Class 1, Andrew Stokes, told BBC News. 

The traditional trooping the colour in London was cancelled due to the pandemic, marking only the second time during the queen's 68-year reign that the parade has not been held. The last time the event was cancelled was in 1995, just three years after the queen's coronation, due to a national rail strike.