No holiday for King Charles III’s coronation, Government says

When the first monarch in just under 70 years is crowned, New Zealanders won’t get a public holiday to mark the moment.

The coronation of King Charles III on Saturday May 6 will be the first since his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was crowned in June 1953.

In 1953, in the UK, the coronation was a public holiday. People lined the route of the procession eager to catch a glimpse of the new Queen. It is not known whether there will be an extra public holiday in the UK, with the Times reporting it seems “unlikely”.

Here, there won’t be a day off to mark the crowning, with a spokesperson for the Prime Minister saying: “We won’t be making the coronation a public holiday in New Zealand.”

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“New Zealand will look at how we can appropriately celebrate the coronation of King Charles next year now the date has been confirmed.

“May 6 falls on a Sunday our time, which means there’s an opportunity for many people to watch the coronation and mark this special occasion in other ways too if they wish to.”

“I’m not sure about [a new holiday],” National leader Christopher Luxon earlier said.

“I mean, I think we’ve had a lot of public holidays this year. I think New Zealand needs to get back to work really. That’s what we need to do – I haven’t given that too much thought yet, and we need to get this country moving again. That means getting people to work,” he said.

Last month, New Zealand observed Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Day, a one-off public holiday, on September 26. Parliament passed the law to ensure New Zealand had a public holiday to mark the monarch’s death only six days before the holiday.

The day was treated as a standard public holiday under the Holidays Act, and there were no restrictions on shop opening hours and trading.

While most cafés, restaurants and retailers remained open, some public facilities and attractions, and many other businesses, closed their doors.

Queen Elizabeth died, aged 96, on September 9. She died at Balmoral Castle, her summer residence in Scotland, after her health took a turn for the worse.

She was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch and, during her 70 years on the throne, was considered a rock of stability across much of a turbulent century.

The late Queen visited New Zealand 10 times on royal tours – her first in 1953, and her last in 2002.

Her 73-year-old son Prince Charles automatically became King Charles’ second wife, Camilla, would become known as the Queen Consort.

Wednesday’s announcement from Buckingham Palace comes amid speculation that the coronation will be shorter and less extravagant than the three-hour ceremony that installed Elizabeth in 1953, in keeping with Charles’ plans for a slimmed down monarchy.