This weeekend for most is a time for an extended weekend with an extra bank holiday giving most people 4 days of rest to spend time with friends and family. No matter what you may think about the monarchy you can’t deny that anyone who manages to stay in the same very public job for 60 years, touring the world and making major decisions at the age of 86 has to be celebrated in some way!
If we look back over
time a year of Jubilee is actually a Biblical principle;
The most unusual observance that God commanded the Israelites through Moses was the keeping of the year of jubilee. For most people this celebration occurred only once in their life time, and for many not even that, as it occurred only once every 50 years. At this year of jubilee all Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery were set free, and all land that had been sold reverted to its original owner. This meant that no Israelite could ever be in permanent slavery; nor could any Israelite permanently lose his inheritance.
The English word jubilee comes from the Hebrew word yobel meaning a trumpet or ram’s horn. These rams’ horns were blown on the Day of Atonement to announce the start of the year of jubilee.
