Join in jubilee celebrations (From Salisbury Journal)

Join in jubilee celebrations

11:01am Thursday 12th January 2012 in Rural Focus

THE Queen, the patron of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI), has invited the charity to be involved in the festivities planned for her Diamond Jubilee this year.

Individuals and communities throughout the country will mark the event in different ways over the extended Bank Holiday weekend of June 2-5, when her majesty will celebrate her 60-year reign.

The only other British monarch to achieve this milestone was Queen Victoria, RABI’s first patron.

Festivities will include lighting a series of beacons at dusk on Monday, June 4, with the Queen lighting the national beacon in London.

In this country there is a long tradition of celebrating important national occasions by lighting beacons on the tops of hills, mountains, church towers and castle battlements, as well as on town and village greens, rural estates and farms and along the coast.

Individuals can also take part by lighting a bonfire in their back gardens.

In 2002, when the Queen celebrated her Golden Jubilee, RABI supporters were responsible for arranging onethird of the 1,800 beacons lit around the country.

This time, they hope to light 1,000 of the 2,012 beacons the organisers hope will mark the anniversary year.

Anyone wishing to arrange a public or private beacon or bonfire and registering it through RABI should contact Melanie Moughton on 01865 724931 for a full guide and registration form.