This is how Queen Margrethe II celebrated her golden jubilee on the throne

Family photo released
This is how Queen Margrethe II of Denmark celebrated her golden jubilee on the throne

Queen Margrethe II (middle) with her family

© Steen Brogaard, Kongehuset

Queen Margrethe II has been Danish head of state for half a century now. The popular monarch celebrated her 50th anniversary at a private dinner with her family.

Denmark celebrated Queen Margrethe II’s golden jubilee on Friday – although the celebrations initially only took place on a small scale due to the corona pandemic, larger folk festivals were postponed to September.

The celebrant herself spent the special Friday evening with her loved ones. As the announced to the royal family, the family gathered for a private dinner to celebrate the 50th jubilee together. Before the dinner hosted by Princess Mary and Prince Frederik in Amalienborg Palace’s dining room, revelers gathered in the palace’s Green Drawing Room around Queen Margrethe II for a photo together.

Queen Margrethe II (middle) with her family

Queen Margrethe II (middle) with her family

© Steen Brogaard, Kongehuset

Margrethe has been Queen of Denmark for 50 years

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the throne, the popular monarch was first officially honored at a smaller ceremony of the parliament at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. Dressed in a powder blue outfit with a matching hat, Margrethe followed the whole thing with interest and – as is so often the case – with a smile on her face. The monarch then traveled to Roskilde to lay a wreath at her parents’ grave in the cathedral.

Margrethe II ascended the throne of the oldest existing monarchy in Europe 50 years ago on January 14, 1972, after her father King Frederik IX. had died. Since then, she has ruled her country scandal-free. According to surveys, more than three quarters of Danes support the monarchy.

The 81-year-old regent is extremely popular with her people. The colorfully dressed monarch is known for her optimism and social commitment. Her addresses to her people are more direct and less formal than those of other European monarchs. And even if she only has a representative function in Denmark’s constitutional monarchy and rarely gets involved in politics, she always acts as a reminder.

In addition to her duties as queen, the grandmother of eight has many other fields of activity. As a linguistically gifted intellectual, she was involved in several translations. In 1981, for example, the Danish translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s novel “All Men Are Mortal” was published, which she published with her husband under a pseudonym.

The Queen has designed costumes and sets for plays and television series, and illustrated a 2002 re-imagining of JRR Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings. Her partly abstract paintings are exhibited in Danish museums and galleries as well as abroad.

In her own words, an abdication is out of the question for Margrethe II: “I’ll stay on the throne until I fall over,” she once said.

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AFP

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