Photo: The Royal Court, Sweden

There’s been a real raft of jubilees across Europe in the past few years with a trio of monarchs reaching landmarks in their reigns.

We’re about to see Sweden party the summer away with the Golden Jubilee of King Carl XVI Gustaf. It comes hot on the heels of two more high profile royal milestones. In 2022, Queen Elizabeth II became the first Monarch ever to mark a Platinum Jubilee with the celebrations becoming a tribute to her long reign which ended just a few months later. The same year saw Queen Margrethe II of Denmark mark a Golden Jubilee. But what exactly is a jubilee?

In the 21st century, it is a series of events marking a major moment in a royal reign. The festivities take a rather similar shape across countries with events planned for the anniversary of the reign itself as well as across the year in which the milestone is reached. The main celebrations always include some kind of religious service, to give thanks for the monarch’s rule, as well as a focal event in the capital city which will also include some kind of procession or balcony appearance to acknowledge those who want to mark the moment with them. Street decorations and special commemorative coins and stamps add another formal touch to the festivities.

However, modern jubilees rely on popular support and the desire to involve as many people as possible has seen a familiar patten of partying develop. Group gatherings, whether they be street parties or dances, take place along with fireworks displays. Tours through different parts of the country are also now a regular feature, to bring the monarch being feted into contact with as many of their fellow citizens as possible.

The celebrations usually start at the quarter of a century point with a Silver Jubilee marking 25 years of rule. Ruby jubilees, for forty years, have also found a fixed point in the celebrations of reigns while a half century brings gold festivities. Diamond Jubilees for sixty years of rule have also grown in number since life expectancy increased. Queen Elizabeth II remains the only Monarch to have celebrated a Sapphire Jubilee for 65 years while the Platinum Jubilee has its very own place in history.

However, in the purest sense of the word, only a celebration for fifty years is a real Jubilee. The word comes from the Bible. In the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, there are detailed instructions for people to follow for seven periods of seven years. But when this cycle of forty nine years is done, it is said the year ”shall be for you a jubilee”. It was to be a time of feasting, of relaxing, of celebration and of forgiveness. Once the year was over, the cycle of work began all over again.

The idea of a royal jubilee only took hold in the 19th century when a celebration was held to mark the start of the 50th year of the reign of King George III. His granddaughter, Queen Victoria, also marked a Jubilee in 1887 and the success of those festivities led to government ministers asking her to consider another party to mark sixty years. Victoria wasn’t keen until a rather clever politician made the most of the queen’s longing to remember her late husband, Prince Albert, as often as possible and suggested a Diamond celebration, in keeping with wedding anniversaries. Victoria was sold and jubilees suddenly became moveable feasts.

Her backing shored up the decision of another European monarch to mark a milestone of his own. In the same year, King Oscar II of Sweden reached a quarter of century of rule and took part in rather more muted celebrations. Victoria referred to them rather dismissively as ‘the King of Sweden’s 25 Jubilee.”

However, the concept of adding flexibility to jubilees stuck. It allowed more rulers to make jubilees and it opened up more possibilities for national celebrations that put reigning royal families at the heart of the party.

King Carl XVI Gustaf has already marked his own ”25 Jubilee”, in 1998, while the festivities for his Ruby Jubilee in 2013 took over Stockholm and were hugely popular. Now, he finally reaches a celebration that his great, great grandmother would approve of as he becomes the latest monarch in Europe to mark a Jubilee.