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.

Find out how jubilees historic and modern have been celebrated in this section.