King Charles III has led the British monarchy since the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last fall.
But in his coronation Saturday, King Charles and the royal family will officially be crowned. They are attempting to make the ceremony about "more than just about the government and the Church of England and Charles as a person, but … a moment of unity and celebration, about all of the things that make the country distinctive and make being a British person like a point of pride," said Erin Vanderhoof, a staff writer at Vanity Fair and the co-host of DYNASTY podcast.
Coronations date back to ancient times, and mark a public display of crowning or inaugurating the respective rulers to their roles. The U.K. is the only remaining country in Europe to hold a coronation ceremony for its monarch.
Watch the conversation between PBS NewsHour digital anchor Nicole Ellis and Erin Vanderhoof in the player above.
More symbolic than declarative, the coronation is a representation of the royal family's work to maintain its historic and cultural significance in a rapidly modernizing Britain, Vanderhoof said.
"It's about the moves and the different decisions that the family has made in order to stay relevant in a world where their power seems increasingly unusual. And one of the things that they always do is they try to change, but not too fast, that there is an idea of continuity and change that you can only really nail if you're thinking about things in the long run. And that's the way that they try to approach their work," Vanderhoof said.
There are some personal, modern touches in Saturday's events. They include an abbreviated two-hour ceremony in place of the nearly three hour ceremony held for Queen Elizabeth in 1953. The coronation events will have updated British features, including a coronation quiche taste tested and given a public seal of approval by Great British Bakeoff Judge Dame Prue Leith. It'll be, "a little bit more pop culture, a bit more fun," Vanderhoof said. And as a nod to his climate change activism, King Charles will adorn pieces of upcycled robes worn by his predecessors instead of having new ones made.
As a head of state, Vanderhoof said King Charles plays an integral diplomatic role as a diplomat and national figurehead. "People like to say he has the biggest diplomatic Rolodex in the world because he's been meeting with diplomats, meeting with heads of state for his entire adult life."
"He has had a lot of opportunity to prove that he is going to serve as a head of state pretty well," she added.