| History
of jubilee
Jubilees go back many thousands of years to ancient
Egyptian and Hebrew times. In the Bible the Book of
Leviticus prescribed that every fifty years there should
be a jubilee when families should gather together, land
should be restored to its original owners, debts should
be remitted, slaves freed and the land left fallow.
The word 'jubilee' actually comes from the Hebrew word
for the ram's horn trumpet with which the jubilee year
was announced - a 'yobel'.
In the New Testament, Jesus presents
himself as the One who brings the old Jubilee to completion,
because he has come to "preach the year of the
Lord's favour" (Isaiah 61: 1-2). In the Roman Catholic
Church, jubilees began to be celebrated formally in
1300 AD and are years of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation.
They are celebrated every 25 years. The most recent
year of jubilee was 2000.
Royal Jubilees celebrate significant
periods in monarchs' reigns and the national life. Few
British monarchs have achieved reigns of 50 years, and
Golden Jubilees are very rare. There are few records
of how - if at all - Henry III, Edward III and James
VI and I celebrated their 50-year milestones.
The first British monarch to mark
50 years on the throne in a significant way was George
III, followed by Queen Victoria. The Queen had Silver
Jubilee celebrations in 1977, when she marked 25 years
on the Throne - her Silver Jubilee.
|
