Trooping the Colour
13 June 2026 · movable holiday — Left, right, left! Marching in step for the monarch’s birthday!
Trooping the Colour is a ceremonial parade in London marking the monarch’s official birthday. It does not fall on the real birthday: since the time of Edward VII it has been held in summer, when the weather is kinder to an outdoor ceremony. It usually takes place on a Saturday in June. The custom of carrying a regiment’s colour (its flag) along the ranks, so that soldiers would recognise it in battle, is very old. Today the parade is held at Horse Guards Parade in London and features soldiers of the Household Division in red tunics and tall bearskin hats, with military bands and cavalry. The monarch takes the salute, and afterwards the royal family appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. The date moves from year to year and has no astronomical basis, but it falls in the weeks before the June solstice, when days are longest and the London sky stays bright late into the evening.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver star figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation, drawn as a guardsman in a tall bearskin hat marching solemnly across the night sky with a straight back and swinging arms
Sources
Positions in Astronativa are astronomically exact. The interpretation is for inspiration. · Glossary · Terms · Privacy · Thank you