In 1973, the Royal Commonwealth Society proposed the day be changed, and the second Monday in March was selected by the Commonwealth Secretariat as the observance day.

This is because all of the Commonwealth shares history, legal systems, culture, and more. In 1958, the then-Prime Minister, Harold MacMillan, rebranded Empire Day as Commonwealth Day. It took another 10 years for it to truly reach a level of popularity – in 1925, an Empire Day Thanksgiving celebration at Wembley Stadium drew around 90,000 in attendance. After Queen Victoria died the year before, the idea was put forth to establish a holiday that honored England, the unity between nations of the Commonwealth, and its ideals of freedom, tolerance, and justice.Įmpire Day actually wasn’t officially recognized until 1916, after having been celebrated unofficially in Canada for 14 years. It was originally known as “Empire Day,” which was established in 1902 to honor Queen Victoria. Though Commonwealth Day today is a well-established holiday celebrated by an estimated 2 billion people worldwide, it wasn’t always called Commonwealth Day, and it had a smaller start.

What are the 13 commonwealth states