Australians are a pretty laidback bunch, but when it comes to Anzac Day (April 25th), it is sacred. For awhile there it was pretty much in the doldrums, but has seen a huge resurgence in recent years. Nowadays young people are embracing the idea of Anzac Day, joining in parades which happen across Australia on this day and travelling to Gallipoli to see where the ANZACS (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed on that fateful day, April 25th 1915.
It was a massacre and Australia and New Zealand lost thousands of their young men. They could ill afford the huge losses as both being such young countries there just weren't that many young men to go around. Yet it was the first war where we fought as Australians and it defined a nation. The ANZAC spirit of mateship is an over-arching spirit in Australians' relationships with each other. We admire the courage, strength, mateship of these young soldiers, and seek to exhibit similar values in our own lives.
Today when there are wars all over the world and it looks like there always will be, it is not bad to think about all the soldiers who have died in the quest to keep their lands free.
Australians still ask why did our young men have to die in Turkey? They were cannon fodder. This is where our ambivilance about the Brits stems from.
Good on you fellow Aussies for believing in this day...
It was a massacre and Australia and New Zealand lost thousands of their young men. They could ill afford the huge losses as both being such young countries there just weren't that many young men to go around. Yet it was the first war where we fought as Australians and it defined a nation. The ANZAC spirit of mateship is an over-arching spirit in Australians' relationships with each other. We admire the courage, strength, mateship of these young soldiers, and seek to exhibit similar values in our own lives.
Today when there are wars all over the world and it looks like there always will be, it is not bad to think about all the soldiers who have died in the quest to keep their lands free.
Australians still ask why did our young men have to die in Turkey? They were cannon fodder. This is where our ambivilance about the Brits stems from.
Good on you fellow Aussies for believing in this day...
'Fom the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, we will remember them...'
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