Royal Wedding: Mystery Hour Answers All Your Harry And Meghan Questions
16 May 2018, 15:07 | Updated: 16 May 2018, 15:12
With Harry and Meghan getting married on Saturday, we look back through the Mystery Hour archives to answer all the key questions you have about the Royal Wedding.
Why do we wear our wedding rings on the fourth finger of our left hand?
In ancient times, they believed that a vein ran straight from that finger to the heart, so it became traditional to wear the ring on that finger. The heart is just to the left of your body, so the fourth finger on your left hand is considered the closest to your heart.
Why do people get a 41-gun salute?
Answer: Standard Royal salutes are 21-guns and are reserved for Heads of State.
With the birth of baby George, Charlotte and Louis, there was a 62-gun salute. 21 were used to mark the royal occasion, another 20 were fired because the Tower is a Royal Palace and a further 21 rounds were fired for the City of London.
There are also 41 and 124-gun salutes for other royal personnel.
If the Queen committed a serious crime, could she get arrested?
Answer: All court cases in Crown court are "The Queen versus". The Queen cannot be charged with the crime as she cannot prosecute herself. So in theory, she could do what she wants. If she killed someone, she would not be arrested for it.
Why do the bride's family pay for the wedding?
Answer: It's to do with the dowry. A husband's family would take responsibility for a woman after they were married. The wedding was funded by the bride's family to cover the costs of this. But few families still abide by this tradition nowadays.
Why do the Queen’s guard wear bearskins on their heads?
Answer: It goes back to the British Empire. Every gunman in the military wore bearskin caps to make them tall and intimidating.
In Napoleon’s imperial guard everyone wore them but they weren’t a touch on the British guard at the battle of Waterloo and we handed to them.
Does the Queen use her handbag to send signals to her staff?
Answer: If the Queen puts her bag on a table, picks it up, or switches it from one arm to the other, it means she wants to leave. She does this as not to indicate to the people she's speaking to that she wants to stop talking to them.
Why is 'X' the symbol for 'kiss'?
Answer: Their letter X was a love rune in Anglo-Saxon and Viking times, before the alphabet came into being. Each of their rune’s has a name. The X is called gyfu i.e. gift. If you are carving a love rune on a stick you would put X’s on it.
