Sunday, April 25, 2004
ANZAC Day
Australians need no reference to understand the meaning of ANZAC, after all, it is considered by most to be our most important national holiday and far more significant than Australia's official birthday (January 26, the day when a fleet of British naval ships landed a heap of unwanted jail-birds in Sydney Cove and stole this country from its original inhabitants), but for readers outside Australia, ANZAC Day commemorates the first landing of Australian and New Zealand armed forces at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Here our troops bravely faced down a superior force occupying the high ground until just about all of them were killed. The only other really important national day (although it's not even a holiday in most States) is Melbourne Cup Day in November - that's when the whole country stops working for a couple of hours to watch a horse race. Yes, looked at like this, we do have very strange preoccupations in this country.
But I digress. ANZAC Day, we believe, signifies the best of what it means to be Australian. The spirit of courage, obedience and duty to God, King and Country that inspired 60,000 young men (most of whom had never left their own small town, let alone this sparsely populated country) to answer the British Empire's call to arms and to give up their lives in defence of freedom; in foreign lands, so far from their homes, families and all they held dear.
No matter what Australians feel about war, there is a clear sense of pride in our fallen warriors. Whether in hindsight they should have answered the call or not is not the issue, the important point is that according to the conventional wisdom of the day, these men gave up everything, to defend their homes, their families and their way of life. That they fought fairly and bravely is unquestioned by old allies and foes alike - the Turkish people have even named the beach where the first troops landed ANZAC Cove in their honour, and every year the Turkish Government hosts a dramatic dawn service there on ANZAC Day. Today 15,000 people attended that service alone.
And in every small town and large city in Australia (and probably in New Zealand as well) many thousands more watch the sun rise on April 25 as a lone bugler trumpets the Reveille, or attend street marches and church services with a common theme.
For me, Scottish/Australian singer/songwriter Eric Bogle sums up my feelings about ANZAC in his moving tribute The Gift of Years where the singer returns to Gallipoli '75 years down the track' to thank his mate for 'the gift of years'. Bogle has written a lot of insightful songs about the first World War and it's worth checking them out.
But across Australia on ANZAC Day, it's these words that are spoken with reverence, awe and gratitude:
They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.
But I digress. ANZAC Day, we believe, signifies the best of what it means to be Australian. The spirit of courage, obedience and duty to God, King and Country that inspired 60,000 young men (most of whom had never left their own small town, let alone this sparsely populated country) to answer the British Empire's call to arms and to give up their lives in defence of freedom; in foreign lands, so far from their homes, families and all they held dear.
No matter what Australians feel about war, there is a clear sense of pride in our fallen warriors. Whether in hindsight they should have answered the call or not is not the issue, the important point is that according to the conventional wisdom of the day, these men gave up everything, to defend their homes, their families and their way of life. That they fought fairly and bravely is unquestioned by old allies and foes alike - the Turkish people have even named the beach where the first troops landed ANZAC Cove in their honour, and every year the Turkish Government hosts a dramatic dawn service there on ANZAC Day. Today 15,000 people attended that service alone.
And in every small town and large city in Australia (and probably in New Zealand as well) many thousands more watch the sun rise on April 25 as a lone bugler trumpets the Reveille, or attend street marches and church services with a common theme.
For me, Scottish/Australian singer/songwriter Eric Bogle sums up my feelings about ANZAC in his moving tribute The Gift of Years where the singer returns to Gallipoli '75 years down the track' to thank his mate for 'the gift of years'. Bogle has written a lot of insightful songs about the first World War and it's worth checking them out.
But across Australia on ANZAC Day, it's these words that are spoken with reverence, awe and gratitude:
They shall grow not old,
As we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn,
At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning
We will remember them.
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