Britain is making its final preparations for a ceremony and celebration that have been decades in the planning: the coronation of King Charles III on Saturday.

A ritual both ancient and made-for-television, the coronation service and its surrounding events will summon the world’s gaze on behalf of a royal family. Britain’s hospitality industry is also counting on an enormous party. The holiday weekend, with street celebrations and a gala concert, will last three days.

Here are some highlights:

The coronation service begins at 11 a.m. (6 a.m. Eastern time) on Saturday in Westminster Abbey in London. The festivities will continue through the weekend and into Monday, which is a public holiday in Britain.

Approximately 2,300 people have been invited to attend the coronation ceremony. Among those to receive the invitation — a hand-painted card by a heraldic artist, reproduced and printed on recycled paper with gold-foil details — are Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain, Jill Biden, European aristocrats, Nobel Prize winners, the actress Joanna Lumley, and famed musicians like Lionel Richie and Nick Cave, but also a magician, a hairstylist and a Syrian refugee.

After years of family tensions, Prince Harry will attend his father’s coronation — alone. Harry’s wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is staying at home in California with the couple’s children, Prince Archie, who turns 4 on Saturday, and Princess Lilibet, 1.

The Coronation Chair used for the coronation of the monarch, was commissioned by King Edward I of England to accommodate the Stone of Scone, which was captured from the Scots in 1296. The chair was constructed in the early 1300s, and the stone sits directly under its seat. The chair is the oldest piece of furniture in Europe still being used for its original purpose, and that 26 monarchs have been crowned on it since the coronation of Edward II in 1308. The Coronation Chair, which has been used for hundreds of years, underwent a restoration before Saturday’s ceremony.

Usually the monarch has a new glove and sword belt made for the coronation, but King Charles III is departing from tradition and reusing the ones worn by his grandfather, King George VI, 86 years ago.

The other objects in the ceremony, including an orb and a scepter that will be held by King Charles, symbolize power and authority in a monarchy. Charles will be crowned with the St. Edward’s Crown, which was removed from the Tower of London last year to allow for modifications to it.

The coronation of King Charles III will feature a processional cross containing what are said to be two pieces of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Pope Francis recently gave the pieces to the new British monarch. The Vatican did not say where the fragments given to King Charles had come from. The pieces were set, under glass, at the center of a cross that was commissioned by Charles, as Prince of Wales, to celebrate the centenary of the Church in Wales, which split off from the Church of England in 1920. An inscription, in Welsh, on the back of the cross reads: “Be joyful. Keep the faith. Do the little things,” from the last sermon of Saint David, the patron saint of Wales.

Across central London, homages to the royal family are appearing on many street corners, from photographs in cafes to giant chalk paintings of King Charles III.

Thousands of additional police officers and security workers will be on the streets of London. It will be one of the largest security operations that the Met has held for quite some time. It was said that the police had learned from Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations honoring her seven decades on the throne last June and her funeral in September, both of which drew hundreds of thousands of people into the city streets.

Ringing the bells for the newly crowned monarch is a centuries-old tradition in Britain. Among those who are going to ring the bells is Andrea Szabolcsi, 42, who works in information technology and moved to London from Hungary seven years ago.

source: The New York Times