Reveal first details of the coronation of King Carlos III 0:46
London (CNN) --
Mark your calendars, royals: King Charles III will be crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023, eight months after succeeding his mother.
Unsurprisingly, the date has been the source of heavy speculation in recent weeks.
Many expected it to be June 2, 70 years after Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, as a symbol of continuity between reigns.
But unfortunately, choosing a date is not as easy as looking at a calendar.
It needs to be checked against everything else to avoid overlapping with other major events (the FA Cup final, for example), as well as ensuring the availability of key players, such as the abbey itself and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who runs the ceremony.
The coronation of King Charles III will be on May 6, 2023, announces Buckingham Palace
With the date set, attention now turns to the details of the day.
The United Kingdom is the only monarchy in Europe to retain the ritual of the coronation, so it will be a typically royal occasion, filled with the pomp and circumstance that so thrills.
But, deep down, it is also a deeply religious ceremony.
Although details of next year's event have yet to be revealed, coronations have been pretty much the same for over 1,000 years, so we have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
It is likely to start with a journey of the king and queen consort to the abbey in procession on the gilded state coach, seen earlier this year at Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Once Charles and Camilla arrive, Buckingham Palace says the coronation will "reflect the monarch's current role and look to the future, while rooting in timeless traditions and pageantry."
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That phrase from the palace has been interpreted as an insinuation that Carlos's coronation will be different from the one his late mother experienced seven decades ago.
Queen Elizabeth II sits on a throne during her coronation at Westminster Abbey in London.
Credit: Central Press Photo LTD/AFP/Getty Images
Around this time, the planning committee orchestrated a grand act of state to introduce the young and somewhat unknown Elizabeth to the world and affirm her position as the new monarch.
Britain was still coming out of a world war, and the country was seen as needing an elaborate occasion to unite.
The ceremony, which was the first televised royal event, lasted more than three hours and temporary structures were erected inside the abbey to accommodate a large guest list of more than 8,000 people.
The central elements of the service were the recognition, the oath, the anointing, the investiture, the coronation and the homage.
Recognition is when the sovereign stands in the theater of the abbey and presents himself to the people.
After taking the coronation oath, which is a vow to rule by law, exercise justice with mercy, and uphold the Church of England, the monarch is anointed with holy oil by the archbishop.
This part is considered the most sacred of the service.
The next part is the investiture, when the sovereign is dressed in special coronation robes and is presented with the symbols of the monarchy: the orb, the coronation ring, the scepter, and the wand.
The Crown of Saint Edward is then placed on the head of the monarch before the royal princes and nobles of the realm address the sovereign to pay their respects.
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The queen consort will also be crowned in a similar but smaller ceremony.
Experts say Charles III's coronation will be a much more low-key occasion than his mother's, and preparations will be influenced by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the UK.
“We are no longer the kind of society we used to be,” says Bob Morris, Honorary Research Fellow in the Constitution Unit at University College London.
It would be "ridiculous if we had the kind of imperialist coronation that we had in 1953," he adds.
"Secondly, we are in the middle of a recession or very close to it. And that is a very good reason not to waste money."
The Crown of Saint Edward has been used in the coronations of the English and later British monarchs.
Credit: Jack Hill/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
Craig Prescott, a law professor at Bangor University in Wales, tells CNN that it is inevitable that the event will be adapted and points to the length of the ceremony as one aspect that could be reviewed.
"(The monarchy) is not a museum. It is a living, breathing part of our constitutional, political and social arrangements, and therefore, to be effective, it has to keep in step with the times," he explains.
"The coronation service has always changed with the times."
Prescott continues: "Although (the queen's coronation) was televised, it was not a television event in the modern sense... Those who organize it today will have more than one eye on the idea that this will be seen mainly through television and a lot of it could be streamlined with a more modern and careful approach".
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Specifically, Morris believes that feudal elements, such as the homage of peers, could be removed entirely.
For his part, Prescott suggests that prayers and readings be reduced, thus making room for "the participation of other religions in the United Kingdom".
"We've seen it in other real events, where people of other faiths participate (and) say prayers from their own religious backgrounds."
Regardless of the changes to the ceremonies, Prescott says next year's royal staging promises to be spectacular.
"(The coronation) is new to almost everyone," he says, adding, "When you think about the monarchy, it's such an old institution, but it's capable of offering something new."
Monarchy United KingdomKing Charles III
