Trooping the colour is a ceremony that celebrates the British sovereign’s official birthday. It takes place each year on Horse Guards Parade, in London, on a Saturday in June. The Household Brigade performs the ceremony in the presence of the sovereign, as colonel in chief. The colour (flag) of a different regiment is trooped (carried before the troops) each year. The sovereign wears the uniform of the regiment whose colour is being trooped. The guards are drawn up along two sides of a square. The massed bands of the brigade form on the south side of the parade ground. A sergeant bears the colour, accompanied by two guards. The colour is placed in front of the parade. This part of the ceremony is lodging the colour. The guards salute the sovereign, and the sovereign, either on horseback or in a carriage, inspects the parade.
The custom of trooping the colour dates back at least to the early 1700’s. The colour was trooped before a regiment daily so that every soldier could see and recognize the flag of his own regiment during battle. The annual parade celebrating the sovereign’s official birthday began in 1805. The sovereign began taking the salute in person in the early 1900’s, during the reign of King Edward VII.
