ANZAC Day
Reflections on ANZAC Day
Today, April 25, is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.
For those who don't live in Australia, it's hard to understand the importance of ANZAC Day in the psyche of the nation and in the role it plays in defining Australia and the sense of national identity.
It's an important day. Unlike Armistice Day in the UK it's a national holiday. There are remembrance services across the nation. These take place at dawn (4.30am this time of year in Sydney) and they are well attended. Today in Sydney 25,000 attended the main service ("Record numbers at dawn service"). In most major cities there is a parade of veterans, again where people turn out in their thousands.
And, each year, there is the pilgimage to Gallipoli itself, in Turkey.
Interestingly, in recent years the observance of ANZAC Day by younger generations has been increasingly noticeable. It's as if a torch has been passed on.
Fifteen-year-old Melissa Forest, wearing her great grandfathers' war medals, said she had attended several dawn services and would continue to do so as a tribute to her relatives and those who worked so hard for a free country.
"I think it's really important that we carry on this tradition because it is these people that made Australia a free country," she said.
Every nation has its stories about it's history. And these stories play a key role in defining a national identity. For Australia, the ANZAC legend is a central part of that.
I'll end today's post with a quote from a speech by former Prime Minister Paul Keating. It was actually an address on Remembrance Day (rather than ANZAC Day) in 1993 on the occasion of the funeral service of the Unknown Australian Soldier. However, it's equally applicable, today, I think and I encourage you to read the whole speech.
That is surely at the heart of the ANZAC story, the Australian legend which emerged from the war. It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity. It is a democratic tradition, the tradition in which Australians have gone to war ever since.
This Unknown Australian is not interred here to glorify war over peace; or to assert a soldier's character above a civilian's; or one race or one nation or one religion above another; or men above women; or the war in which he fought and died above any other war; or one generation above any that has been or will come later.
The Unknown Soldier honours the memory of all those men and women who laid down their lives for Australia. His tomb is a reminder of what we have lost in war and what we have gained.
We have lost more than 100,000 lives, and with them all their love of this country and all their hope and energy.
We have gained a legend: a story of bravery and sacrifice and, with it, a deeper faith in ourselves and our democracy, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be Australian.
Today, April 25, is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand.
For those who don't live in Australia, it's hard to understand the importance of ANZAC Day in the psyche of the nation and in the role it plays in defining Australia and the sense of national identity.
It's an important day. Unlike Armistice Day in the UK it's a national holiday. There are remembrance services across the nation. These take place at dawn (4.30am this time of year in Sydney) and they are well attended. Today in Sydney 25,000 attended the main service ("Record numbers at dawn service"). In most major cities there is a parade of veterans, again where people turn out in their thousands.
And, each year, there is the pilgimage to Gallipoli itself, in Turkey.
Interestingly, in recent years the observance of ANZAC Day by younger generations has been increasingly noticeable. It's as if a torch has been passed on.
Fifteen-year-old Melissa Forest, wearing her great grandfathers' war medals, said she had attended several dawn services and would continue to do so as a tribute to her relatives and those who worked so hard for a free country.
"I think it's really important that we carry on this tradition because it is these people that made Australia a free country," she said.
Every nation has its stories about it's history. And these stories play a key role in defining a national identity. For Australia, the ANZAC legend is a central part of that.
I'll end today's post with a quote from a speech by former Prime Minister Paul Keating. It was actually an address on Remembrance Day (rather than ANZAC Day) in 1993 on the occasion of the funeral service of the Unknown Australian Soldier. However, it's equally applicable, today, I think and I encourage you to read the whole speech.
That is surely at the heart of the ANZAC story, the Australian legend which emerged from the war. It is a legend not of sweeping military victories so much as triumphs against the odds, of courage and ingenuity in adversity. It is a legend of free and independent spirits whose discipline derived less from military formalities and customs than from the bonds of mateship and the demands of necessity. It is a democratic tradition, the tradition in which Australians have gone to war ever since.
This Unknown Australian is not interred here to glorify war over peace; or to assert a soldier's character above a civilian's; or one race or one nation or one religion above another; or men above women; or the war in which he fought and died above any other war; or one generation above any that has been or will come later.
The Unknown Soldier honours the memory of all those men and women who laid down their lives for Australia. His tomb is a reminder of what we have lost in war and what we have gained.
We have lost more than 100,000 lives, and with them all their love of this country and all their hope and energy.
We have gained a legend: a story of bravery and sacrifice and, with it, a deeper faith in ourselves and our democracy, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be Australian.
posted by Kevin Francis at
10:02 am
