Queen Elizabethhanded out coins to 93 men and 93 women during a service at St. George’s Chapel on Thursday in a tradition dating back to the 13th century: the distribution of Maundy money.
Steve Parsons/PA Images via Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth and Princess Eugenie.Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock
Queen Elizabeth.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Each recipient of Maundy money – one male and one female for every year the Queen has been alive – was given two small leather purses, one red and one white.
The first contains a small amount of coinage which symbolizes the monarch’s gift for food and clothing – this year in the form of newly two minted cousins: a £5 piece, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Queen Victoria and a 50p coin portraying Sherlock Holmes. The white purse contains Maundy coins up to the value of the Queen’s age. Recipients at Thursday’s service were given 93p in silver Maundy coins.
The Queen has held Nosegays, a bouquet made up of daffodils, primroses, stocks, purple statice, freesias, ivy, hebe and the herbs rosemary and thyme. The flowers were originally used to disguise odors as the monarch washed the feet of recipients.
Steve Parsons - WPA Pool/Getty
Early in her reign, the Queen decided Maundy money should not just be distributed to the people of London, and so she now travels to various cathedrals or abbeys to give gifts to local people. The recipients were chosen in recognition of their service to the community.
As of 2017, the Queen has now visited every Anglican Cathedral in England for the Maundy Service. This year’s ceremony took place at Windsor Castle, which recently hosted the weddings ofMeghan Markleand Prince Harry as well as Princess Eugenie and Jack.
Anthony Devlin - WPA Pool/Getty
source: people.com
