During the coronation, King Charles III will attend a ceremony with a long British tradition .
Buckingham Palace has revealed more details about the events that will take place at the coronation of a king after more than 70 years. The most recent coronation was that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. After her death in September 2022, King Charles III ascended the throne.
Past coronation ceremonies involved many traditional ceremonies. However, King Charles wanted this coronation ceremony to drop some complicated ceremonies, to be more modern and streamlined. Buckingham Palace also said that the coronation of King Charles will “reflect the role of the present monarch and look to the future, while preserving the values of longstanding traditions”.
The anointing will be done in private and in private.
But above all, the King will not overlook the most sacred ceremony of the ceremony, which is the anointing ceremony. It is because of the solemnity of this ceremony that the anointing will be done in private and in private. Queen Elizabeth has also followed this rule in the past.
Queen Elizabeth has also followed this rule in the past.
The anointing, known as the Act of Consecration , will take place before the ordination and crowning, and is celebrated by the Archbishop. At the coronation of King Charles, the Archbishop of Canterbury will be the one to anoint the King.
The tradition of anointing is rooted in the Old Testament book of the Bible, which describes the Priest Zadok and the Prophet Nathan anointing King Solomon. It was also one of the medieval holy sacraments that emphasized the spiritual status of the monarch.
According to the Royal Collection Trust, the Archbishop will pour the holy oil from the Ampulla (vase) into the oval silver-plated Coronation Spoon decorated with pearls and carvings. Ampulla is a solid gold vase in the shape of an eagle, crafted in 1661 for the coronation of King Charles II.
Westminster Abbey, where the coronation will be held, said Ampulla and the spoon were the “most important” objects used during the ceremony. Both have been used for hundreds of years, with the first recorded information about the spoon in 1349. This is the only work of the royal goldsmith to survive from the 12th century.
The ampulla and the spoon are the “most important” objects used in the ceremony.
During Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, she sat on the Coronation Throne while the four Knights of the Garter held a golden canopy over her head. It was the first coronation ceremony to be televised, but as the anointing was prepared, the curtain was moved to obscure the ceremony. According to the BBC, the archbishop will say his blessing while anointing her. Perhaps, during King Charles’ anointing, the Archbishop will also say the blessing, just replacing the phrase “The Queen reigns over the nations” with “The King reigns over the nations”.
Traditionally, holy oils used for coronations in the past contained oils from civet animals and ambergris from the guts of whales. However, the holy oil used in King Charles’ coronation was made from plants . Holy oil is made with olive oil and is scented with other essential oils such as sesame, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, benzoin, and amber. In particular, the olive branches extracted as holy oil are harvested from two forests on the Mount of Olives, located on the eastern slopes of the Old City of Jerusalem in the Middle East.
The holy oil used at King Charles’ coronation is made from plants.
The choice of oil for the coronation ceremony also shows the meaning of the Royal side. Specifically, olive oil comes from the Mount of Olives where Jesus preached. In addition, olive oil was also obtained from Mary Magdalene Monastery in the Garden of Gethsemane, where, according to the Bible, the place where Jesus was arrested, and also the burial place of King Charles’ paternal grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg .
“This demonstrates the deep historical connection between the Coronation, the Bible and the Holy Land,” said the Archbishop of Canterbury. .