Here are some of the stranger features of coronations past and present.

Permission to roast an ox

At the time of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, the Ministry of Food granted 82 applications for people to roast oxen.

To be given permission to roast an ox, a local authority had to prove that by tradition an ox had been roasted at previous coronations.

It was also a requirement that the meat was given away for free to those at the festivities. The extra meat was a welcome treat at a time when the meat ration was two shillings a week.

A chicken fit for a coronation

A mainstay of buffets in the decades that followed, coronation chicken was dreamed up to be served to foreign guests after the Queen's coronation.

Credit goes to the heads of the Cordon Bleu cookery school, food writer and florist Constance Spry, and chef Rosemary Hume.

The brief was the food had to be prepared in advance and, according to Buckingham Palace, Mrs Spry proposed a recipe of cold chicken in a curry cream sauce with a well-seasoned dressed salad of rice, green peas and mixed herbs.

The recipe won the approval of the Minister of Works and has since been known as coronation chicken.

The bright yellow dish is flavoured with curry powder and the original featured dried apricots rather than the raisins more commonly used today.

Historical claims to be part of the coronation

A Coronation Claims Office was created to consider claims from the public to perform a historic or ceremonial role in the coronation.

People with an ancestor who played a part in a previous ceremony could apply to do a similar role at the King's coronation.

Thirteen individuals and organisations were selected for roles including investing the King with regalia, bearing a staff in the procession and instructing the monarch in the rites and ceremonies of the coronation.

When deciding whether someone should be part of the coming ceremony, the office considered "matters including whether the role or service was performed in 1953 or not, what the basis is for it to be performed now and the claimant's connection to those who previously performed the role or service".

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A new recipe for the anointing oil

The anointing is the most sacred part of the coronation ceremony and involves the archbishop anointing the monarch on the hands, chest and head.

The oil contains sesame seed and olive oil, rose, jasmine, cinnamon, neroli, benzoin, amber and orange blossom.

Before now, the same recipe had been used since the coronation of Charles I in 1626.

It included civet musk - a secretion taken from the glands of a civet - and ambergris from whale intestines.

The King faced calls to change it over animal welfare concerns, and the new recipe is cruelty-free.

The oil that will be used on 6 May was consecrated at a ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

Beef for the workhouses and cash for the unemployed

For Queen Victoria's coronation, extra rations of beef were distributed to workhouses and prisons.

George VI's coronation in 1937 was marked with a special welfare payment to the unemployed. However, this was not repeated in 1953, and there's been no talk of something similar this year.