Red Deerians who want to raise a teacup in honour of King Charles’ coronation, and pay tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth, will be welcome at Cronquist House.
An Afternoon Tea will be served from 11 a.m to 4 p.m. on May 6 and guests are encouraged to wear their best ‘bib and tucker.’
Margaret Day, Red Deer Cultural Heritage Society board member, said it will be a low-key event with the regular menu except for the addition of Coronation Quiche, the dish chosen by the Royal couple that people can make for community coronation events.
Day said various members of the Royal family will be fanning out across their country to attend some of the celebratory street parties.
British born and raised in Kingston upon Hull in East Yorkshire, England, Day said she is looking forward to watching the televised coronation.
“I will record it and sit with my cup of tea later in the day and thoroughly enjoy it all.
“I just love the pageantry of it all. It makes my heart swell with pride when I see the formation of the armed forces. They’re magnificent,” Day said.
King Charles’ coronation takes place at Westminster Abbey and will be marked by a procession, a concert at Windsor Castle and other events.
Historian Michael Dawe said in the past Red Deerians would gather for large community events to celebrate coronations. Red Deer even established Coronation Park for the May 1937 coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother).
Community events were also planned for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in the spring of 1953, which were moved indoors due to heavy rain.
Dawe said Queen Elizabeth II was the monarch for so long, and so popular, it could cast a shadow on King Charles, but he is expected to modernize the monarchy to make his own mark.
Raye St. Denys, executive director of Shining Mountains Living Community Services who is Métis, said she hopes that the King will deepen ties with Canada’s Indigenous communities and Canada as a whole.
She said he has already tried to be respectful and inclusive by inviting the leaders of the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Métis National Council to the coronation.
Protecting the environment is something that the King and Indigenous people also have in common, she added.
“I don’t think it’s an easy road for him, but I have hope and faith he’ll walk it well,” said St. Denys, whose mother was a British war bride.
Day said King Charles, who was way ahead of his time with his interest in architecture and the environment, should do just fine in his new role.
She said some people are posting online that they don’t want to swear allegiance to him, but they are forgetting something.
“They’re not swearing allegiance to Charles. They’re swearing it to the institution, not to the person heading the institution,” Day said.
— with files from The Canadian Press