Come this summer, we will be celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne – the first British monarch to celebrate his or her Platinum Jubilee. The first British monarch to reach 50 years on the throne, and celebrate his Golden Jubilee, was King George III, followed by Queen Victoria. But then Queen Elizabeth overtook them both as the longest-reigning British monarch, first with her 60th anniversary and Diamond Jubilee in 2012, and now with her Platinum Jubilee this June, 2022. But where did the idea of jubilees come from?

The word ‘jubilee’ is much older than people may realise and much more biblical than royal.

Its modern definition is ‘a special anniversary or an event, especially one celebrating twenty-five or fifty years of a reign or marriage’. However, originally it was the old Hebrew word ‘yobel’, meaning ‘ram’s horn’s trumpet’. The horn used to be blown to indicate the celebration of the Jewish Year of Jubilee; the year that, in the Book of Leviticus (third book of the Torah, and of the Old Testament), people were supposed to be freed from slavery and debts. The year came at the end of seven sabbath cycles – the 49th year. Though some people and rabbis argued that it was actually celebrated the following year – the 50th year. And so, you get the idea of celebrating at the 50th year mark. And from an event that was primarily related to trade – whether of people or money, rather than marriage or a royal’s reign.

In the Royal Catholic Church, jubilees began to be celebrated formally in 1300 AD, as years of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation, every 25 years. A tradition added and transformed from the Jewish faith into the Christian. Eventually, jubilee celebrations got attached to marriage celebrations too. The word then transformed with time, as words tend to do, both in spelling and pronunciation. It became the root for the English word jubilee, and jubilation, and the German jubel, meaning joyful singing.

Eventually, it transformed into a word meaning non-religious celebrations too.

Royal Jubilees took on the idea of celebrating 25 or 50 years of marriage and changed it to celebrating a monarch’s reign.

And it is certainly an achievement to reach one’s Silver (25 years of reign) or Golden Jubilee (50 years of reign). Few British monarchs have actually done so, with Golden Royal Jubilees being quite rare historically.

The first British monarch to mark 50 years on the throne was George III, in 1809. Then his granddaughter, Queen Victoria, reached hers in 1887. Queen Elizabeth II was the third monarch to do it in 2012.

So not only are royal jubilees a much more recent invention than jubilees in general, anything more than a Silver Royal Jubilee is quite a rare event.

Which makes the upcoming long bank holiday weekend this June, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee and 70 years of reign, something that should certainly be taken note of. It will be a once in a lifetime event for most, if not all people.