May 24th

Today, May 24th used to be a holiday in Britain to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday and in an effort to promulgate the British Empire the holiday was encouraged in the Commonwealth and in 1909 Empire Day was born in Bermuda, later becoming Commonwealth Day.

This day in 1909 a patriotic children’s parade ran from Somerset to St Georges and over a century later, this morning thousands of people lined the streets to watch a colourful and noisy parade of floats and performers to celebrate what is now Bermuda Day.

Hamilton was heaving as every piece of available space was taken by visitors and local alike. Traffic was halted from early in the morning as 1,200 runners sped from Somerset to Hamilton to contest the annual Bermuda Day Half Marathon.

It is also recognized as the first ‘real’ day of summer and the enticing water finally becomes warm enough to throw oneself in, and that is exactly what we did today with some friends at Tuckers Point.

With work getting a little fraught, today’s holiday was nicely timed.