King Charles III will be crowned at his coronation at Westminster Abbey today, a ceremony that featured odes to the past and royal legacy, while also looking ahead to his reign through a mixture of bold and subtle symbols. The royal family, heads of state, and other notable guests are gathering for a coronation that in comparison to Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years ago, will be subdued, but still marked by the traditional regalia and pomp that the royal family has fulfilled for more than 1,000 years. “This is really about generational legacies, not just about a state occasion but very much about dynastic legacies,” Romita Ray, an art history professor at Syracuse University, tells TIME.