{"id":1168866,"date":"2026-08-25T17:19:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168866\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T17:19:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T17:19:24","slug":"why-do-the-royals-have-two-birthdays-explaining-the-unusual-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1168866\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do the Royals Have Two Birthdays? Explaining the Unusual Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone else: celebrates their birthday once a year on the literal day they were born. King Charles: demands multiple birthdays per year just \u2018cause, which honestly might be the most relatable thing about him at this point.<\/p>\n

To be clear, not every member of Britain\u2019s royal family forces people to f\u00eate them twice a year: It\u2019s just a monarch thing. Meaning, Queen Elizabeth II had two birthdays, King Charles has two birthdays, Prince William will have two birthdays, and Prince George will also have two birthdays. And like his late mother before him, King Charles celebrates his birthdays on 1) the actual day he was born, November 14\u2014in case you want to celebrate for some reason, and 2) a random Saturday in June.<\/p>\n

And the June celebration becomes everrrrrryone\u2019s business. Let\u2019s get into it.<\/p>\n

Why Does the Monarch Have Two Birthdays?<\/p>\n

Basically, to throw a giant parade in their own honor. Which I\u2019ve been telling my friends and family to do every year, to no avail.<\/p>\n

As for the date, summer is typically a nice time to be in England, and the parade\u2014aka Trooping the Colour\u2014has been held in June for a while now, regardless of when the King\/Queen\u2019s actual birthday is. (For what it\u2019s worth, Queen Elizabeth\u2019s birthday was in April.)<\/p>\n

How Long Has This Been Going On?<\/p>\n

A looooong time. According to the Household Division<\/a> (the seven British Army regiments serving King Charles), Trooping the Colour was first ideated by King Charles II, pictured below, in the 1600s.<\/p>\n

\"Google\"<\/p>\n

Add Cosmopolitan as a preferred source in your Google search results.<\/p>\n

Use your Google account to add this to your settings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Add to Google settings<\/p>\n

\"CharlesHulton Archive\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

King Charles II<\/p>\n

By 1748, it had officially become a parade in honor of the sovereign\u2019s birthday\u2014kicking off with King George II. So, the monarch\u2019s second birthday celebration has been a thing for over 250 years at this point.<\/p>\n

\"EdwardW. and D. Downey\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

King Edward VII<\/p>\n

Per the BBC<\/a>, it was King Charles\u2019s great-great-grandfather, Edward VII (also a November baby, pictured above) who decided to celebrate his birthday\/Trooping the Colour in the summer instead of the day of his birth, for the aforementioned weather-related reasons. No one wants to troop the colour in the cold rain, you know? And speaking of trooping said colours…<\/p>\n

What Does Trooping the Colour Even Mean?\"TroopingJohn Phillips\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kate Middleton, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis<\/p>\n

Essentially, over 1,400 soldiers and 400 musicians get together for a giant public parade and the colour-trooping commences. The \u201ctroop\u201d part is a reference to British troops, while \u201cthe colour\u201d refers to their specific regimental flags. So, \u201ctrooping the colour\u201d means the troops are carrying around their flags in front of the royals\u2014who dress up for the occasion, arrive in open-air carriages, and make one of their patented balcony appearances. Moreover, it\u2019s an opportunity for some next-level pomp and circumstance, and one of the biggest and most overt displays the British monarchy puts on (second only to any given Royal Wedding).<\/p>\n

In conclusion I no longer feel bad for making my friends and family celebrate my \u201cbirthday month.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone else: celebrates their birthday once a year on the literal day they were born. King Charles: demands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1168867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7708],"tags":[223518,1380,317164,1331,258961,1381,225285,5105,7710,519,448,317163,291041,225931],"class_list":["post-1168866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-royals","tag-collection-royal-family","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-f5422b01-8ef4-45ba-a6aa-75220a238403","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-3","tag-royal","tag-royal-families","tag-royal-family","tag-royals","tag-shorttitle-why-does-king-charles-have-two-birthdays","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-celebs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117157299142764331","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1168867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}