King Felipe and Queen Letizia today attended the commemoration event of Hispanic Day with Princess of Asturias Leonore and Infanta Sofia at the Plaza de Lima in Madrid. Later in the day, the royal couple hosted the annual reception for the Government, Military and Social authorities at the Royal Palace.
Also known as the National Day, the Hispanic day is a public holiday in Spain, on which the King of Spain supervises the raising of the Spanish national flag in the centre of Madrid Plaza de Lima and then lead a military parade after that accompanying by Prime Minister.
The commemoration of the National Festival aims to solemnly recall moments of collective history that are part of the common historical, cultural and social heritage, assumed as such by the vast majority of citizens. According to Law 18/1987, dated October 7, which establishes the day of the National Day of Spain on October 12, symbolizes the historical event in which Spain, on the verge of concluding a process of construction of the State from of our cultural and political plurality, and the integration of the Kingdoms of Spain into a single Monarchy, begins a period of linguistic and cultural projection beyond European limits.
The Royal Family arrived escorted by the squadron of Royal Escort and was received by the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The Royal guards presented the honours to the King. Then King Felipe reviewed the troops and greeted the members of the Government and Armed forces.
After a parachute jump carrying the Spanish flag, three royal guards, representatives of each of the Armies, a civil guard and national police transferred the flag, which was raised to the chords of the National Anthem. Then took place the tribute to those who gave their lives for Spain. The Music Unit of the Royal Guard was in charge of interpreting “The death is not the end”, to whose compasses were made the movements of scripts and portacoronas.
4,200 troops from the Armies and the Navy, as well as the Civil Guard, National Police, Civil Protection and Maritime Rescue, 76 aircraft and more than 150 vehicles along with troops from Lebanon, Senegal, Mauritania and Mali participated in the annual Military Parade.
76 fighters, transport aircraft and helicopters flew over the Paseo de la Castellana in a north-south direction giving a spectacular air-show.
For its part, the ground parade opened with a mechanized component consisting of 150 vehicles, under the command of the general chief of the Infantry Brigade “Almogávares” VI of Paratroopers (BRIPAC), which included representations of veterans of the Armed Forces and of the Civil Guard, Voluntary Reservist Units and Disabled Association.
It was followed by special vehicles from the Army, Navy, Air Force, EMU, Civil Guard, National Police Corps, State Agency for Tax Administration and Customs Surveillance, Civil Protection, Maritime Rescue and Maritime Security.
Today’s event had a small mishap. The soldier carrying the flat in the air had his parachute stuck in the lamp post giving a momentarily shock to all the present. Later King and Queen met the soldier to ask about his well-being.
After the parade, Felipe and Letizia hosted the Prime Minister, Government officials, high foreign positions, presidents of Autonomous Communities, former Presidents of the Government, Diplomatic Corps, Political Groups , Congress of Deputies, Senate, Constitutional Court, General Counsel of the Judiciary, Supreme Court, Council of State, Court of Auditors, Office of the Attorney General, and Ombudsman, as well as the rest of the attendees, coming from all social spheres of national public life in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Zarzuela. Once the greetings were finished, the reception began, which took place in the area of the Gala Dining Hall and the Salons of Gasparini and Carlos III.
Coming to the sartorial details – Once again Queen Letizia put her trust in Spanish designer Felipe Varela and the Royal fans were not disappointed with the result.
Queen Letizia wore a beautiful and regal pink midi dress. The lace dress features a peter pan collar, a self belted waistline, pleated skirt and white butterfly embroidery on the dress.
Letizia paired the dress with pink eye-catching oval-shaped earrings, that reportedly belong to her Mother-in-Law Queen Sofia.
Queen was wearing her nude Steve Madden ‘Plaza’ pumps, maybe the only element of today’s look that I did not like.
She was carrying her pink Magrit clutch debuted in June 2018 during US visit.
Her Karen Hallem ring finished the look.
