The United Kingdom is preparing to celebrate the coronation of King Charles on May 6th, and an easy way you can get 10 days off is by taking the annual four days off.
The 75-year-old monarch will be crowned during a ceremony in Westminster Abbey on Saturday 6, but the country will enjoy a three-day weekend.
The May 8 bank holiday was brought forward to allow people to take part in Sovereign’s Big Help Out charity initiative, which means Britons will enjoy a three-day weekend.
But the early May 1 bank holiday means workers who want a longer break from the happy royal occasion can get up to 10 days off by booking just four days of annual leave.
Here’s how to maximize your annual leave thanks to the coronation.
The UK is preparing to celebrate the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla on May 6th, and you can take advantage of the bank holidays to get some extra time off from work.
Monday May 1st is the annual bank holiday in early May and actually offers a three-day weekend for people who work Monday through Friday.
Monday 8 May is a nationwide bank holiday to celebrate the King’s accession to the throne and his Big Help Out charity initiative.
So by booking Tuesday 2nd, Wednesday 3rd, Thursday 4th and Friday 5th May, workers will get a total of 10 days off, from Saturday 29th April to Tuesday 10th May.
While the British sort out requests for their annual leave, the King is preparing for this coronation in Westminster Abbey.
It has been reported that the number of guests at the King’s coronation is so tight that many members of the British royal family and aristocrats missed out on inviting the event.
But Charles and Camilla are hosting a lavish reception at Buckingham Palace on Friday 5 May, the night before their coronation, to greet the good and the wonderful, including some of those left out of the main event.
The first recorded coronation banquet dates back to 1194, while King George IV in 1821 was so lavish that 23 makeshift kitchens were built next to Westminster Hall to produce 160 bowls of soup alone, along with 3,271 cold dishes.
So great was the event that the Deputy Earl Marshal had to supervise the proceedings on horseback, riding along the center of the hall, and the cost so shockingly enormous that no other has been held since.
Camilla, The Queen Consort and King Charles III during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace on November 22, 2022
While the traditional coronation banquet will not continue, Their Majesties look forward to welcoming the crowned heads of many European kingdoms as well as the First Lady of the United States.
More than 1,000 guests are expected to attend the private reception on May 5, along with most of the senior members of the royal family.
The event will not be a traditional sit-down dinner, but will be modeled after the reception that Charles and Camilla also gave for dignitaries and Commonwealth representatives just before Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.
“It will look a bit like the annual diplomatic reception that takes place every December at Buckingham Palace rather than a state banquet and it will be a wonderful mix of majesty, family and friends,” a source said.
The magnificent invitation to the coronation of the King in Westminster Abbey on May 5 next month
It is understood that many would be spouses or children of guests who did not make the convent cut-off due to tight numbers.
Among them is the Dutch King Willem-Alexander and his wife, Queen Máxima, who will attend the coronation.
But they will be joined at Buckingham Palace on Friday by the former queen, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrix, 85, who knows Charles well, and her granddaughter, the future queen, 19-year-old Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange.
Another source said, “Most of the guests of the coronation ceremony will be dignitaries, in addition to all those whom their majesty wanted to invite to the ceremony, but they were unable to do so due to the reduction in numbers in the monastery.”
Sources said the plan is to use the Palace Hall, which is currently closed to all but the inner circle as it was set up as a replica of Westminster Abbey for private rehearsals for the coronation.
