SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Britain celebrated the royal wedding of William and Kate with a grand patriotic spectacle. Friday's ceremony also sent out a message: With these two at the helm as the future king and queen of England, the monarchy will be less distant from its subjects in the years to come -- and also a little more human.
If you want to know just how important a particular event is to the Brits, you just have to look at the bets that the bookmakers are accepting. In the runup to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday, you could, for example, bet that the bride or groom would drop the wedding ring during the ceremony in Westminster Abbey (something which did not happen), or that Kate would mix up the first names of her husband, like Diana before her (she did not), or that Prince Philip would fall asleep during the ceremony (fortunately he did not) or that the Queen would wear a yellow hat (which she did).
The British had been preparing for the royal wedding for weeks. Some had chosen the best place to observe the proceedings and had camped out on the sidewalk for days. Others chose to use the public holiday to hold royal-themed parties.
There were certainly enough attempts to make money out of the occasion. The high-end supermarket chain Waitrose, for example, had a royal couple made out of gingerbread on sale. Demand rapidly increased in the past few days, and hundreds of the gingerbread royals were sold.
The route that Kate and William traveled after the ceremony in their century-old coach had resembled a carnival scene for days. People were already camped out on Thursday evening to reserve the best places along the route. More and more arrived over the course of the evening, braving the cold. The sense of anticipation grew by the hour. Across the country, around 5,000 street parties were held in what was no less than an impressive patriotic spectacle.
The wedding was also a kind of national festival. The British were celebrating their royal family and their own Britishness. Early on Friday morning, hundreds had gathered at the Goring Hotel, where Kate Middleton spent her last night as an unmarried woman together with her parents and siblings. Spectators outside Westminster Abbey fought fiercely for the best seats. Some of them had left their homes or hotels at the crack of dawn to get a place in the front row, and were not willing to settle for less.
Even after the wedding, people continued celebrating -- some out of conviction, others simply because everyone else was doing so. The euphoria did not let up. » | Marco Evers, Barbara Hans and Carsten Volkery in London | Friday, April 29, 2011
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