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Celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Taking place between 2nd – 5th June, the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee was a joyous celebration for the whole nation. The first British Monarch to celebrate 70 years of service, which is a fantastic achievement and one that the citizens of the United Kingdom can truly be proud of.
Since being crowned on 2nd June 1953, Queen Elizabeth II’s reign has witnessed some remarkable events in British history. In the last 70 years as a nation, we have come so far, and at the front of it was Her Majesty the Queen. Some highlights include England winning the World Cup in 1966, Tim Berners-Lee’s creation of the World Wide Web in 1989 and the 2012 Olympic games.
As expected, our residents were keen to join in with the festivities throughout the celebratory weekend. Our homes were dressed from ceiling to floor in a sea of red, white and blue as they donned the Union flags. The Well-being and Activities Co-ordinators were in top form, hosting some quintessentially British activities, including traditional street parties at Aran Court. Residents invited their loved ones over for a scrumptious afternoon tea at Seagrave House and St Giles, with scones, cream and jam. Over at Knowle Gate, their community welcomed some beautiful Shetland ponies dressed for the occasion, which gained a cheesy smile on their residents’ faces. Alma Court was extremely excited to have received a thank you letter from the Queen herself in return for the Jubilee card which their residents made and posted to Buckingham Palace.
There was no slacking on celebrations at Edenbridge Manor as they hosted their very own Royal Variety performance fit for the Queen. It was an entertainmentpacked fun day for their residents and loved ones with bands, dancers and singers. They shared plenty of lovely images to their Facebook page with Wellbeing Co-ordinator Tina Muskett, quoting, “It was such
a memorable day bringing family and friends together to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee. Thank you to all who attended and made this day extra special.”
Residents and staff joined together to prepare entries for Avery’s Great Platinum Jubilee Cake Competition in true British spirit in the lead-up to the celebrations. Zahid Khan, Head of Well-being and Activity, said, “It has been wonderful to see the level of engagement and the huge amount of fun everyone has had whilst participating in the competition.”
There were some fantastic entries, and it was by no means an easy decision for the Group Support Centre Panel to choose the overall winners. After much deliberation, Edenbridge Manor secured the first prize, with Spencer House a close second, followed by Clare Court in third place.
Judith, Carer at Edenbridge, head of the ‘Cake Committee’, held a meeting with residents to share and discuss design ideas. They all researched, learning that the Queen’s favourite cake is chocolate, which is regularly included in her afternoon tea menu. The team’s cake had several layers, including chocolate and Victoria sponge, and residents Audrey, Joan and Jean spent hours creating the decorations, with edible diamonds on the crown. The finishing touches were added, and they proudly presented their cake to their fellow residents and staff at the home.
Staff and residents at Edenbridge were delighted to hear that they won the competition, saying: “The creation was a team effort, and so was the eating of it! We were so pleased to hear we have won and had celebrations all around – this is a wonderful team achievement.”
Over at Spencer House, residents discussed potential colours and flavours before deciding on a lemonflavoured sponge. Residents Rosemary and Eileen said, “Sometimes we enjoy cupcakes, and sometimes a good slice of cake is tastier”, which inspired their final design. Once they started, their keen bakers and decorators were not stopping, with guidance from Housekeeper Jacky, a fantastic baker in her spare time, who gave the residents a mini masterclass as they went along.
Residents at Clare Court enjoy spending time in the garden, and the theme for their Jubilee Cake was ‘Garden Party’. Many of the beautiful flowers in the gardens at Clare Court
have been planted by residents’ family members, with the residents themselves keen gardeners too. They helped place flowers onto the cake with three layers: blueberry cheesecake, vanilla sponge with strawberry jam, and chocolate. Their final showstopper looked fabulous, with cupcakes also decorated by the residents to go alongside.
The entries wowed Deputy Chief Operating Officer Lisa Soper, “The cakes are all amazing, and the backstories behind them are incredible; we were so moved by these. You are all winners in our eyes.”
Celestial Celebrations
SUMMER SOLSTICE
A solstice is, in essence, an astronomical definition of the seasons, which takes place twice a year in summer and winter. The solar phenomenon creates the longest day of the year in the summer when the sun is farthest in the sky in the northern hemisphere and the farthest in the southern hemisphere in the winter, giving us our shortest day. It happens between the 20th and 22nd of June after the sun has travelled the longest path through the sky to provide us with the most daylight. Summer will last until the autumn equinox, the 22nd or 23rd of September (20th or 21st of March in the southern hemisphere).
Solstice derives from the Latin for the sun (sol) and to stand still (sistere). As the North Pole is tilted toward the sun, the vertical noon rays shift north of the equator, directly over the Tropic of Cancer. The same happens on the opposite side of Earth in the South Pole, progressing to the southernmost position, over the Tropic of Capricorn. Different cultures celebrate this seasonal configuration of the sun and the Earth in various ways, and its celebration dates from before Christianity to ancient times.
Marking the beginning of midsummer, the summer solstice is usually associated with New Agers and with people gathered at Britain’s prehistorical monument, Stonehenge. It is believed that the World Heritage Site was built around 5000 years ago, with the central stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period (2500 years BC). The significance of the arrangement of stones in Wiltshire concerns the Heel Stone; viewed from the centre of the stones on the summer solstice, the outlying stone aligns with the sunrise. It is believed it had a partner stone at one time, framing the midsummer sunrise. Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and New Agers
call the festival Midsummer, Litha, with traditions borrowed from many cultures. It commences on the eve of the summer solstice, celebrating the sun god at his solar peak when the Earth is awash with fecundity. The winter solstice is just as meaningful; people use it as a time to reflect inwards and evolve, sometimes burning notes of intention or whatever they wish to let go of as they observe the longest night of the year. Many cultures traditionally celebrate solstices with bonfires, feasts and picnics, songs and dancing, sometimes around a maypole. It is thought that these celebrations of fire and light promote love and growth and boost the sun’s energy to give a good harvest. Dating back as early as the Stone Age, leaping and dancing around the bonfire is thought to protect from misfortune, banishing evil spirits and demons. A fire burning atop hills and mountains is associated with magic, leading maidens to their
The significance of the arrangement of stones in Wiltshire concerns the Heel Stone; viewed from future husbands. The ashes from the bonfire are then spread over the centre of the stones on gardens and fields to encourage a the summer solstice, the bountiful harvest for the autumn. In outlying stone aligns with Pagan folklore, protective garlands the sunrise. of flowers and herbs were worn; St. John’s Wort was popular because they are heliotropic, tracking the sun from the east to the west. It is St. John’s Day, on the 24th of June, the birth of John the Baptist, that Christian churches recognise as the solstice, which is also the halfway point between planting and harvesting crops. During the solstice, people believed that the veil between this world and the next was at its thinnest, so they would offer flowers to appease fairies, goblins, pixies and sprites during this time. Cultures throughout history have observed the festival of Midsummer for a variety of reasons. Throughout the ancient world, the summer solstice meant the rise of the Egyptian river Nile, so it was
The ashes from the bonfire are then spread over gardens and fields to encourage a bountiful harvest for the autumn.
used to predict annual flooding. The Egyptians strategically placed the Spinx for the summer solstice, positioning the two pyramids, so the sun sets between them. In Greece, it was a marker for a month until the Olympic games, and according to some ancient Greek calendars, it was the start of the new year. The ancient Greeks called it Kronia – the festival celebrating the god of agriculture, Cronus. Whereas ancient Rome had Vestalia, celebrating Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. Vikings used the summer solstice to discuss legal matters and resolve disputes, but in China, depending on who the ruling dynasty was, people had days off to worship Mother Earth and her feminine force. The Native American tribes, particularly the Sioux tribe, performed a ceremonial dance around a tree, wearing symbolic colours. Wyoming’s Bighorn Medicine Wheel, an arrangement of stones built hundreds of years ago by the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains, aligns with the sunrise and sunset of the summer solstice for their culture’s annual sundance. The solstice traditions have roots in Scandinavian, Slavic, Germanic, and Celtic cultures, with parades and parties continuing worldwide today.