TENDRING residents are being invited to join a short celebration to commemorate Commonwealth Day today.

The Commonwealth flag will be hoisted during a short ceremony on Monday, March 11, at 9.55am outside Clacton Town Hall on Station Road.

The flag which represent the whole of Tendring will join flags flown across the UK and Commonwealth nations in this annual event.

The blue and gold flag represents the many areas of co-operation between the commonwealth and was first officially adopted in 1976.

A specially written statement will be read out by Tendring District Council (TDC) Chairman Gary Scot who said: “I would like to invite people to join us in commemorating this special day as part of a global community celebrating the Commonwealth”.

Commonwealth Day moved to its current date, the second Monday in March, in 1977 and changed its name in 1958 after previously being called Empire Day.

The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 56 independent countries with a combined population of about 2.4 billion citizens, almost a third of the world's people.

While in June 2022, the two most recent nations, the francophone African Gabon and Togo joined, which alongside Mozambique and Rwanda are unique in not previously being part of the United Kingdom or any other Commonwealth nations.