Death of Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte

[hillary_nugent]

Originally Posted by drimal

2000 white roses, 300 white orchids and 300 white azaleas were yesterday in a transporter near the chorus room of the cathedral. During the funeral they will accompany the Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte on "her last way". Roses were the favourite flowers of the Grand Duchess and white was her favourite colour...

PS: This text was published in German in my newsper Luxemburger Wort and I translated it in English!:)

A beautiful funeral for a beautiful lady ^__^

thanks for the translation Drimal!

[Ephram]

Thanks drimal, you have informed almost everything here

[rere]

Thanks drimal. I plan on watching the funeral.


Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg City

Built between 1613 and 1621, this magnificent Gothic cathedral houses the royal family vault and the large sarchophagus of John the Blind as a well as a notable treasury. The treasury can be viewed on request. The charming annual Octave of Our Lady of Luxembourg takes place here every year on the fifth Sunday after Easter. Thousands of pilgrims gather to pray to the miraculous statue of the Holy Virgin for protection. They then form a procession to carry the statue from the cathedral through the streets to an altar covered in flowers in the Avenue de la Porte Neuve




These flowers are beautiflu. (This is my favorite royal cathedral).
More can be found at Rtl.lu

[GrandDuchess]

The cathedral looks very nice, thanks for the pics and the text!

[Danielle]

Thanks drimal and rere.

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Originally Posted by drimal

2000 white roses, 300 white orchids and 300 white azaleas were yesterday in a transporter near the chorus room of the cathedral. During the funeral they will accompany the Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte on "her last way". Roses were the favourite flowers of the Grand Duchess and white was her favourite colour...

Wow! I didn't know that!

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

I think JC is currently at the Cathedral. I don't think Guillaume and the bunch have been seen mourning in public, but I'm sure they are mourning in private.

[Ephram]

Royalty out in force for funeral of Luxembourg grand duchess

Fri Jan 14, 3:13 PM ET
Entertainment - AFP



LUXEMBOURG (AFP) - Members of 15 royal houses from Europe and beyond will be in attendance Saturday for the funeral of Luxembourg Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte, who died this week aged 77.


AFP/File Photo


Luxembourg authorities said Friday that the burial service would be held at the national cathedral at 1110 GMT.



A 21-gun salute will boom out, while the pallbearers will be drawn from the royal family and the tiny country's armed forces.



Josephine-Charlotte, the Belgian-born mother of Luxembourg's reigning monarch Grand Duke Henri, died of lung cancer on Monday.



Her younger brother, King Albert II, will lead the delegation of mourners from neighbouring Belgium.



Also in attendance are expected to be Spanish Queen Sofia, Queen Margrethe II II of Denmark, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Norway's Queen Sonja and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.



The British royal family will be represented by Prince Andrew, while Japan's Prince Akishino, Jordan's Prince El Hassan Bin and Prince Albert of Monaco are also expected.



Representatives of three former royal houses, from Bulgaria, Greece and Iran, will also attend.






Courtesy of Yahoo News and AFP

[Ephram]

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Who are those people standing next to the coffin?

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Why isn't Queen Elizabeth going?

[Ephram]

I don't know. She is the most superior monarch on earth and if she is going , she will likely be given a very special position. Last time she went to the Funeral of King Baudouin of Belgium and never attended anything like this any more

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

I don't think she is the most superior, she just thinks she is.

[Ephram]

Originally Posted by gaggleofcrazypeople

Who are those people standing next to the coffin?

Again, I also don't know. This picture is taken from RTL site and those people standing next to the coffin look like scout girls. So very informal right?, don't you think so?

In other countries, when their royals passed away, members of royal family or military officials complete with their various military dresses and decorations will safeguard the coffin all day long but this one they only put scouts?

[Ephram]

But superior or not, sadly she will not attend.

[Nathalian]

Me too....i think that she´s know all the world...but, she´s the same as Queen Sofia, Silvia, Sonja, Beatrix, Paola......but, since she´s from UK......you know where i´m getting...but, it´s a shame she´s not going...

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

Isn't she going to be in Germany in two weeks?

[gaggleofcrazypeople]

That doesn't make much sense.

[Ephram]

Courtesy of The Canadian Press

Luxembourg prepares lavish royal funeral for grand duchess
01:42 AM EST Jan 15



LUXEMBOURG (AP) - Luxembourg prepared to bury Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte, the mother of the reigning monarch, on Saturday with music by Bach and Mozart and the white roses she loved.

Josephine-Charlotte died of lung cancer Monday at age 77. She married Grand Duke Jean, who ruled the country of 450,000 people from 1964 until 2000, when he abdicated in favour of his son Henri, the current monarch, in 2000.

The 15-minute funeral cortege will thread its way through the narrow, historic centre of Luxembourg, going from the gingerbread grand ducal palace to the Cathedral of Our Lady, which holds the royal crypt.

A 21-gun salute - at 30-second intervals - will sound over the city and its massive, old ramparts that hover over the deep, picturesque ravine of the Alzette River.

Bystanders lining the funeral route will be asked to toss the petals of white roses as the casket is taken to the cathedral for the burial and funeral mass.

The cathedral itself has been decorated with 2,000 white roses as well as 600 white orchids and azaleas. White was the grand duchess's favourite color, the rose her favourite flower.

Expected to attend the funeral are Josephine-Charlotte's brother, King Albert of Belgium; her husband, the former monarch and their five children, Grand Duke Henri, princes Jean and Guillaume and princesses Marie-Astrid and Margaretha.

After a funeral mass, the grand ducal family is to accompany Josephine-Charlotte's coffin into the crypt that contains the tombs of Luxembourg bishops and royalty. The coffin will be placed in a space below the crypt's stone floor.

On Friday, the national parliament stood in silence for one minute in memory of the grand duchess, who died 10 days after Luxembourg assumed the six-month presidency of the European Union. The government scaled back some EU-related events during the period of official mourning.

Grand Duchess Josephine-Charlotte Ingeborg Elisabeth Marie Jose Marguerite Astrid was born Oct. 11, 1927, at the Belgian royal palace in Brussels.

The daughter of Belgian King Leopold III and Swedish-born Queen Astrid, she spent her childhood in private schools in Belgium.

On June 7, 1944 - one day after the allied D-Day landings in Normandy - the Belgian royal family was deported to Germany.

In May, 1945, they moved to Geneva, Switzerland, because King Leopold could not return home due to an intense controversy in Belgium over his wartime conduct that brought the country to the brink of civil war.

In Geneva, Josephine Charlotte studied child psychology. On April 9, 1953, she married Prince Jean of Luxembourg, then heir to the grand ducal throne of the tiny country surrounded by France, Germany and Belgium. Throughout her reign, she showed an interest in childhood and family issues, health and the arts and headed the Luxembourg Red Cross.