King’s birthday and such

Today is the King’s Birthday public holiday in New Zealand, a day which honestly has no particular relevance for most New Zealanders, apart from being a day off work. I suppose that’s actually enough.

For many years, this was our last public holiday until Labour Day, which is the last Monday in October (this year that's 21 weeks from now, on October 28). We also have the Matariki Public Holiday, which is observed in June or July, depending on the rising of the Matariki star cluster (in Europe and its decedent cultures, it’s known as The Pleiades or the Seven Sisters). This year, the public holiday is June 28.

I think it’s still possible that the current “coalition of chaos” government will talk about eliminating one of our public holidays, each party for its own reasons, but whether they’ll follow through or not is unclear. For this year, at least, our public holidays are safe.

There are only two things (other than the name…) that tie the public holiday with the monarchy. The first is that one of the two Honours Lists are released on King’s Birthday (the other is New Year’s Day). The King must approve all honours (except for military honours). As is usually the case, the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours List is filled with people I’ve never heard of. This year, I’ve only heard of the new knights and dames [various recipients are talked about on the 1News site, and also on Stuff, and also on RNZ, among others]. This is the first year that the Queen’s Service Order (QSO) and Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) were renamed King’s Service Order (KSO) and King’s Service Medal (KSM).

I have no particular opinion on whether any of the honours are “deserved”, though I did noticed that unlike other honours lists under previous National Party-led governments, it’s not heavily dominated by “for services to business”, the two new knights and two new dames notwithstanding. In general, though, I think knighthoods and damehoods are an anachronism, maybe even silly, in the 21st Century. Recognising and honouring outstanding achievement by New Zealanders—especially work down by unpaid volunteers—is a good thing, but some fancy title that a foreign king has to approve seems kind of absurd to me—though I’d accept one if I was teleported into an alternate universe where I was given one, which underscores that my quibble is with the foreign title, not the honour itself.

The other thing that ties this public holiday to the monarchy is that there are 21-gun salutes for the reigning monarch—even though King Charles’ actual birthday is November 14, and the late Queen’s actual birthday was April 21. Still, whatever, I guess.

For most New Zealanders, the royal connections aren’t the focus of the day—a day off work is. Because it’s a public holiday, there’s no mail delivery today, and some cafes and restaurants have a special service charge to “compensate” them for having to pay workers more on a public holiday. There are grumbles about that every public holiday, of course. I’ve seldom gone to a cafe on a public holiday, and when I have gone, I wasn’t happy about the surcharge. I wouldn’t say it’s kept me from going, exactly, but there have been times it was a factor when we were were kind of unsure about whether to go or not.

Most people like public holidays, of course, regardless of what it’s ostensibly for. Sure, some business owners grumble, but most of them just get on with, well, business. So do the rest of us. And so it goes, on repeat.

But public holidays are great to have. I suppose that’s actually enough.