- Commonwealth Day is celebrated on May 24 of every year. This day is celebrated by all the countries that were once under the reign of the British Empire.
- It was first celebrated on 24 May 1902, on what would have been Queen Victoria’s birthday the year after her death. However, it did not become officially recognised as an annual event until 1916.
- Commonwealth Day is celebrated on different dates across the world. UK, Australia and Canada celebrate the day on the second Monday of March. On the other hand, India, along with countries like Belize celebrate Commonwealth Day on May 24.
- Each year, there is a theme of the Commonwealth Day and the day is celebrated in such a way as to honour and inculcate this theme in the UK and the rest of the Commonwealth.
- It is marked by an Anglican service in Westminster Abbey, normally attended by Queen Elizabeth II as Head of the Commonwealth along with the Commonwealth Secretary-General and Commonwealth High Commissioners in London.
- The Queen delivers an address to the Commonwealth, which is broadcast throughout the world.
- However, it has been cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic, and been replaced by Sunday’s BBC One broadcast, titled A Celebration for Commonwealth Day.
- Commonwealth Day is not a statutory holiday and it is on the specific country to decide whether a holiday will be observed. It is a public holiday in Gibraltar.
- Commonwealth Day was previously named as Empire Day, as a celebration of the birth of Queen Victoria after 1916.
- In the year 1916, Lord Meath extended the celebration of Empire Day to all the countries of the Commonwealth. It thus became a major event in history.
- In the year 1958, the then Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Harold Macmillan, announced in the Parliament that Empire Day will be renamed as Commonwealth Day.
- The Commonwealth has had a shared history with Britain, along with some cultural links, common legal systems and also business processes.
- The Commonwealth Secretariat then selected the second Monday of March will be observed as Commonwealth Day, throughout all countries of Commonwealth.
- Commonwealth Day’s significance is of “being a symbol of unity of feeling … to those ideals of freedom, justice and tolerance for which the British Empire [stood] throughout the world”, as given in an article dated on 1916.
- The ideals of the day, when it was celebrated as Empire Day, also included reminding all the children that they formed a part of the British Empire.
- The children must also think like the ones who live on other lands. They must also know what it is like to be the sons and daughters of the Empire.
