Other Countries and Territories
The Queen's official birthday is a public holiday in Gibraltar and most other British overseas territories (known as Crown colonies until 1981). In 2008, the Government of Bermuda decided in 2009 that the day would cease to be a public holiday, despite protests from people on the island, who signed a petition calling for its retention. The Falkland Islands celebrate the actual day of the Queen's birth, 21 April, as June occurs in late autumn or winter in the Falklands. It is a public holiday in Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha, where it falls on the third Monday in April.
Norfolk Island celebrates the Queen of Australia's birthday on the Monday after the second Saturday in June. Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands both celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday on the second Monday of June as is the case with most other realms. Fiji also still celebrates the Queen's Official Birthday, along with the Prince of Wales's birthday, since, although the Queen ceased to be head of state in 1987, she remains recognised by the Great Council of Chiefs as traditional queen, or paramount chief, of Fiji.
Read more about this topic: Queen's Official Birthday
Famous quotes containing the words countries and/or territories:
“In the life of the human spirit, words are action, much more so than many of us may realize who live in countries where freedom of expression is taken for granted. The leaders of totalitarian nations understand this very well. The proof is that words are precisely the action for which dissidents in those countries are being persecuted.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“For my part, I feel that with regard to Nature I live a sort of border life, on the confines of a world into which I make occasional and transient forays only, and my patriotism and allegiance to the state into whose territories I seem to retreat are those of a moss-trooper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)