To-day is Anzac Day.This is a significant day in Australian life.
All around Australia from the Australian War Memorial (below) to every tiny country community, Australian and New Zealand war dead will be remembered.
All around the world, Australians and New Zealanders will gather.
They gather for the Dawn Service in Gallipoli in Turkey.
They gather in Flanders Fields.
The troops in Iraq and every place on earth where there are Australian and New Zealand military personnel, there will be solemnity and memorial.
After the solemnity, there will be the traditional two-up game
"Two up" game in progress troops returning from service H.M.A.T. MAHIA
Museum Victoria Collection
When Australians remember those who died in the service of their nation, on Anzac Day, at the going down of the sun in RSL Clubs across Australia, the verse below is said as a sort of prayer, a testimony of sacred intent:
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
1 comment:
Sorry, but I am over Anzac Day. I mean no disrespect to the fallen, and those who served, but...
The ABC was awful, yesterday. Jingoistic rubbish - all day long, from about 4:30am onwards. Even the AFL football plays along with it, and promotes Anzac Day. What are they promoting?
Why does the ABC lose its "critical faculties" on Anzac Day? Even the News service ended up carrying press releases for the RSL, welcoming the increase in support. They write those Press Releases beforehand, each and every year. Yet the ABC carries the same old rubbish, year in, year out.
We are in the grip of the militaristic upswelling of "nationalism", and it suits the conservative, dare I say it reactionary forces of society. But the ABC is too frightened to question anything to do with Anzac Day. Worse, it pipes the tunes of its paymaster - ad nauseam.
ANZAC day has modern political overtones, of course, as it fits with the Government's illegal invasion of a modern Muslim nation - Iraq. So, Gallipoli reinforces Baghdad, and riots in Cronulla, and fear of Lakemba. It is time we woke up, and spoke up against it all.
Denis
Post a Comment