And also why do they still exist? Can’t a regular soldier do the same thing?
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Others have mentioned that it is prestigious, but there’s a reason it is prestigious:
Because ritual and ceremony are important to people.
Getting married is really just signing a piece of paper together – but people have big fancy weddings for the ritual of it.
Graduating high school or college is also really just paperwork – you’ve checked enough boxes to be done. But people wear odd hats and robes and walk across a stage for the ritual of it.
Similarly, palace guards (at least the ceremonial ones you see) aren’t just soldiers in regular uniforms, like you see at an embassy gates or the like, but they’re soldiers with special uniforms and routines because it’s part of the ritual of having a palace and getting the prestigious position of guarding it.
(Having a “palace” is of course itself an exercise in ritual / ceremony. Even an American palace like the White House could really just an office building if we did t care about the ritual of it.)
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