ANZAC Day = Beyond Early Wake Up Call

Greetings, yes I know it has been a long time and it is time to finally dust off the old blog typing skills and for a good reason, to share some splendid cultural experiences. The most recent Australian cultural event I have attended was ANZAC Day (yes I know this is late, but better late than never, right?)

Let me give you a little background about this day(for all my homeland readers.) First of all ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. This holiday occurs on April 25th and is a commemorative day for the Australian and New Zealand groups who landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 during the WWI. These brave soldiers landed at Gallipoli at approximately 4:15AM (yes that might sound like a random fact, but believe me, it is an important one to the current holiday proceedings and my ANZAC day adventure.) Not only does this holiday commemorate these specific troops but it also honors all previous and current serving military personnel, it is a way of thanking them and quite inspiring.

Let me tell you a little about my experience of ANZAC day....

I was really excited about attending a real Australian experience and so I kept asking for details about the Dawn Service that kicks the holiday off and people kept telling me, well it starts really early I am not sure if you are going to want to go. So I thought, oh come on, the sun doesn't rise until about 6:00AM right now, one early morning is not going to kill me....well I was a bit off with the start time. Remember how I said that the troops landed at 4:15AM, well, that is when this holiday starts. I guess the founders of the holiday really wanted everyone to get the true experience of being up and at 'em like the soldiers at 4:15AM, because the Dawn Service for the day starts promptly at that time. Don't get me wrong it was a wonderful experience and I would do it again in a second, however, I must say that going to bed at 9PM and setting my alarm to wake up at 2:45AM.....that part was a bit odd. It was also a bit odd walking through the city in the middle of night to meet my group and seeing an odd mixture of very composed and neatly dressed military personnel combined with the sloppy drunks who were still stumbling about from the current night. Here is me trying my best to look semi-awake before 4:00AM....

It was a raining morning(well I guess technically AM, but I would prefer to actually call it the middle of the night), the weather seemed to mirror the somber mood of the service.

Dawn Service was beautiful and had a wonderful atmosphere of national pride. I am sure the Australians especially the service members were having a feeling similar to the one I always get during the Olympics after one of our athletes wins a gold medal and as they stand on the podium our national anthem plays (oh come on, you know I am not the only cheese ball who gets goose bumps and teary eyes for that, you know what I am talking about.) This service was a wonderful mixture of hymns, bagpipes, and the Australian and New Zealand anthems.

After this service was over...aka before 6AM we headed to the RSL (aka The Returned and Services League) where there were more people lined up for beer than coffee. Did I fail to mention yet the early drinking that also occurs with this holiday. The rest of the day was filled with cheers, beers, and celebration. The whole city (well I am sure the whole country, however, I only experienced Sydney so I can only speak for that) was celebrating the servicemen and women who filled the streets. If one was visiting Australia and did not know about the holiday, they might think that the Australians were preparing for a war, as everywhere you looked their were war medals, uniforms and sailors caps. My favourite tribute to this was at a pub called The Three Wise Monkeys.

Allow me to make the painfully obvious statement of the Army speaks no evil, the Navy sees no evil, and the Air force hears no evil. But I digress, now that I have gotten stating the obvious out of my system on to more observations from the day.

Speaking to members of the Australian navy I have been given a few insights about the way that military is treated in Australia vs. America and I am slightly surprised. Members of the Australian Military really appreciate the American spirit of thankfulness of soldiers. The ones who have visited have said that Americans even hold a great deal of respect for foreign servicemen. I thought this was normal, but they explained that for the most part they are not allowed to wear their uniforms outside of work, and when they do they are often confronted with looks and sometimes disrespect. On the holiday I participated in I was walking with a group of gentlemen displaying their medals, and they didn't seem to know how to react when strangers thanked them for their services, that every other day of the year, they would not be given the same amount of respect. I find this contrast in the treatment of the military very strange considering that in the U.S. I believe their is a great amount of everyday pride in our military but, we do not have any specific holidays celebrating and truly praising all military personnel like ANZAC day did.

It was a long day, it was an inspirational day, and it was a great experience, even if I wanted to go to bed at 7PM. My overall impression of ANZAC day was a day filled with national pride and thanks. Everywhere you walked around on the street it was a sea of uniforms and medals. Well, yeah and in true Aussie tradition lots and lots of beer(why didn't I take a picture of that...that would have been a good insert in this blog, pictures of beer, well just use your imagination.)

Signing out from tomorrow hope you are having a pleasant today.