When? - Empire Day
Albert Park's Queen Victoria statue
When did we celebrate Empire Day?
24 May, Queen Victoria's birthday, was Empire Day. Most people welcomed this link to 'Queen Victoria the Good' in the days when the celebration of the sovereign's birthday changed with each new monarch.
That was fine during the reign of Victoria's son Edward VII (1901-10). But the 24th proved inconveniently close to the 3 June birthday of her grandson, George V (1910-36). People tended to combine the two, causing the New Zealand Herald to grumble that 'Empire Day has so far failed to become a universal and general holiday'. In 1919 officials announced that Empire Day would be observed on the King's birthday, following the practice of the schools for much of George V's reign. By 1936 the Evening Star was lamenting that 'not even Civil Servants keep it as a holiday'.
But Empire Day did recover its separate identity after 1936 and the New Zealand elite, like its Empire/Commonwealth counterparts certainly maintained a day that J. O Springhall considers 'came to serve a religious function in an increasingly secular world'. Indeed, 'as the power of Empire waned between the wars', he observed, 'the strength of public interest in ceremonies like Empire Day seemed to increase'.
'Children of the Empire, clasp hands across the main,
And Glory in your brotherhood, again and yet again;
Uphold your noble heritage - oh, never let it fall -
And love the land that bore you, but the Empire best
of all'
Edward Shirley, 'Children of the Empire', New Zealand School Journal, Part I, May 1910
Next page: Our First Empire Day 
