Queen’s Official Birthday The A-Team 李竤頡 林聖堯 朱冠乙 張浚圻陳騏勝 楊尚為 廖信郎 賴又銘

What is The Queen’s Birthday? The Queen’s Official Birthday, or you can call it The Queen’s Birthday. While Queen Elizabeth celebrates her actual birthday on 21 April, she also has an official birthday, and this festival is usually held in June. But why is in June? That’s because the weather in June is better than any other month in a year in the UK, so the King Edward VII decided to organize activity in June. Because of that, Australians and New Zealanders, but June is their winter. In the UK, this activity is usually held on Saturdays, but in Australia or New Zealand, this activity is held on Mondays, and it became an official holidays for three days.

Why do they celebrate it? New Zealand and Australia were colonies of the United Kingdom.

How? In Australia, each place has the public fireworks performance. There are also matches are traditionally played by The Australian Football League clubs.

We got fun facts! 1.Most New Zealanders and some Australians don’t care about the meaning of this holiday anymore. It only means the beginning of the snow season to them. 2.The Australian Capital Territory will only allow the fireworks to the public when Queen’s Official Birthday is close.

What does Louise, the pen pal say about the holiday? Jack Chang & Jacky Lin

9/22: The First Letter to Louise Dear Louise, Hi! I'm Jack Chang. How's your high school life going? I'm sorry that I haven't kept in touch with you for about 3 weeks. That was because of my broken computer. I live in the northeast county called Yilan in Taiwan. I like to enjoy delicious food and make tours. This semester, I take a special course named ‘International Culture Cass’. The teachers made us do reports on foreign festivals, or holidays this week. And I'm thinking of ing you and ask some questions about ‘the Queen's Birthday’ in New Zealand. We students in Taiwan learned few about the Queen's Birthday. The only thing I know is that the exact date of the celebration varies from country to country. However, I would really like to know more about the reason why the date is different from one country to another. What would people in New Zealand do to celebrate the Queen's Birthday? Do you love this day, why or why not? What’s more, are there any other festivals, or holidays that you like in New Zealand? Would you share some with me? Hope to hear from you soon. Jack

9/25: The Reply from Louise Hi Jack I don't actually know much about the Queens birthday. As far as I know, it is a symbolic celebration of the Queen's birthday, though I'm not sure which queen, the current, past, etc. We celebrate this because New Zealand was originally a colony of England, and now is an independent state or something with the queen as the head of state. We don't celebrate it much - all it means to us is a day off school. In fact, the only celebrations we actually celebrate is Easter, (with lots of Easter Eggs and chocolate), Christmas, New Year's and Guy Fawkes (with fireworks) and stuff like the winter solstice, the summer solstice and Chinese New Years some people celebrate. The winter and summer solstices are the longest and shortest days of the year. Another celebration is Otago Anniversary Day. This is only celebrated in Otago (where I live), it is the day of the founding of otago. Different regions have different anniversary days. Again, all this means to me is a day off school. Another celebration is ANZAC day, when we remember all the soldiers that have died in war. //for some people, it's a big deal, but not for our family. School life is going brilliantly - because it's the holidays! I don't have any school for two weeks. How about you? Louise

The 3 meanings of the day for Louise It is a symbolic celebration of the Queen's birthday. We celebrate this because New Zealand was originally a colony of England. We don't celebrate it much - all it means to us is a day off school.

Queen's official Birthday 2009 Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip wave from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after attending the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London June 13, Queen Elizabeth II smiles.

Work Cited "No Celebrations For Queen's Birthday." Scoop - New Zealand News (2009): n. pag. Web. 25 Sep "Happy Birthday - whenever it is." BBC News (2001): n. pag. Web. 25 Sep Rivera, Larry. "Queen's Birthday Holiday." About.com (2006): n. pag. Web. 25 Sep "Trooping the Colour: thousands celebrate the Queen's official birthday." Telegraph (2009): n. pag. Web. 26 Sep "Britain celebrates queen's official birthday." China Daily (2009): n. pag. Web. 26 Sep