Anzac Day

Anzac Day
Anzac Day Dawn Service at Australian War Memorial, 25 April2005, 90th anniversary
Observed by	Memorial services, public holiday
Type	Patriotic, Historical, Nationalist
Significance	First landing of the Anzacs at Gallipoli
Observances	Military parades, remembrance services
Date	25 April
Related to	Remembrance Day (Commonwealth of Nations), Armistice Day (New Zealand)

Anzac Day is commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to honour members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac Day is also celebrated in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.

Beginnings of the Memorial Day

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. The pride they took in that name endures to this day, and Anzac Day remains one of the most important national occasions of both Australia and New Zealand.

When war broke out in 1914, Australia had been a Federal Commonwealth for only thirteen years. In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, under a plan by Winston Churchill to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The objective was to capture Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and an ally of Germany. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Turkish defenders. What had been planned as a bold strike to knock Turkey out of the war quickly became a stale-mate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. Over 8,000 Australian and 2,700 New Zealand soldiers died. News of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in war.

Though the Gallipoli campaign failed in its military objectives of capturing Istanbul and knocking Turkey out of the war, the Australian and New Zealand troops' actions during the campaign bequeathed an intangible but powerful legacy. The creation of what became known as an "Anzac legend" became an important part of the national identity in both countries. This shaped the ways they viewed both their past and their future.

Flags on the New Zealand's National War Memorial for the 2007 Dawn Service. Note the flags of New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia (left to right)

On 30 April1915, when the first news of the landing reached New Zealand, a half-day holiday was declared and impromptu services were held. The following year a public holiday was gazetted on 5 April and services to commemorate were organised by the returned servicemen.

The date, 25 April, was officially named Anzac Day in 1916; in that year it was marked by a wide variety of ceremonies and services in Australia and New Zealand, a march through London, and a sports day for the Australian and New Zealand soldiers in Egypt. The small New Zealand community of Tinui, near Masterton in the Wairarapa was apparently the first place in New Zealand to have an Anzac Day service, when the then vicar led an expedition to place a large wooden cross on the Tinui Taipos (a 1,200 ft (370 m) high large hill/mountain, behind the village) in April 1916 to commemorate the dead. A service was held on the 25th of April of that year. In 2006 the 90th Anniversary of the event was celebrated with a full twenty-one gun salute fired at the service by soldiers from the Waiouru Army Camp.

In London, over 2,000 Australian and New Zealand troops marched through the streets of the city. A London newspaper headline dubbed them "The Knights of Gallipoli". Marches were held all over Australia in 1916; wounded soldiers from Gallipoli attended the Sydney march in convoys of cars, accompanied by nurses. Over 2,000 people attended the service in Rotorua. For the remaining years of the war, Anzac Day was used as an occasion for patriotic rallies and recruiting campaigns, and parades of serving members of the AIF were held in most cities. From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and New Zealand, Anzac services were held on or about 25 April, mainly organised by returned servicemen and school children in cooperation with local authorities.

Anzac Day was gazetted as a public holiday in New Zealand in 1920, through the Anzac Day Act, after lobbying by the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services' Association, the RSA. In Australia at the 1921 State Premiers' Conference, it was decided that Anzac Day would be observed on 25 April each year. However, it was not observed uniformly in all the States.

During the 1920s, Anzac Day became established as a National Day of Commemoration for the 60,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders who died during the war. The first year in which all the States observed some form of public holiday together on Anzac Day was 1927. By the mid-1930s, all the rituals now associated with the day — dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly two-up games — became part of Australian Anzac Day culture. New Zealand commemorations also adopted many of these rituals, with the dawn service being introduced from Australia in 1939.

A small commemoration march in suburban Sydney moves off (April 2008)

With the coming of the Second World War, Anzac Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives of Australians and New Zealanders lost in that war as well and in subsequent years, the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include those killed in all the military operations in which the countries have been involved.

Anzac Day was first commemorated at the Australian War Memorial in 1942, but, due to government orders preventing large public gatherings in case of Japanese air attack, it was a small affair and was neither a march nor a memorial service. Anzac Day has been annually commemorated at the Australian War Memorial ever since.

Australians and New Zealanders recognise 25 April as a ceremonial occasion, to reflect on the futility of war, and to remember those who fought and lost their lives for their country. Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing, mainly at war memorials in cities and towns across both nations. One of the traditions of Anzac Day is the 'gunfire breakfast' (coffee with rum added) which occurs shortly after many dawn ceremonies, and recalls the 'breakfast' taken by many soldiers before facing battle. Later in the day, ex-servicemen and women meet and join in marches through the major cities and many smaller centres.

Dawn service

Poppies, a symbol of remembrance

After the First World War, returned soldiers sought the comradeship they felt in those quiet, peaceful moments before dawn. With symbolic links to the dawn landing at Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a common form of Anzac Day remembrance during the 1920s.

The first official dawn service was held at the Sydney Cenotaph in 1927. Dawn services were originally very simple and followed the operational ritual; in many cases they were restricted to veterans only. The daytime ceremony was for families and other well-wishers and the dawn service was for returned soldiers to remember and reflect among the comrades with whom they shared a special bond.

Before dawn the gathered veterans would be ordered to "stand-to" and two minutes of silence would follow. At the start of this time a lone bugler would play "The Last Post" and then concluded the service with "Reveille". In more recent times the families and young people have been encouraged to take part in dawn services, and services in Australian capital cities have seen some of the largest turnouts ever. Reflecting this change, the ceremonies have become more elaborate, incorporating hymns, readings, pipers and rifle volleys. Others, though, have retained the simple format of the dawn stand-to, familiar to so many soldiers.

Typical modern dawn services follow a pattern that is now familiar to generations of Australians, containing the following features: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, the playing of "The Last Post", a minute of silence, "Reveille", and the playing of both New Zealand and Australian national anthems. At the Australian War Memorial, following events such as the Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services, families often place red poppies beside the names of relatives on the Memorial's Roll of Honour. In Australia sprigs of rosemary are often worn on lapels and in New Zealand poppies have taken on this role .

Commemoration

The Last Post is played at an Anzac Day ceremony in Port Melbourne, Victoria, 25 April 2005. Ceremonies like this are held in virtually every suburb and town in Australia and New Zealand on Anzac Day each year.

In Australia and New Zealand, Anzac Day commemoration features solemn "Dawn Services", a tradition started in Albany, Western Australia on 25 April 1923 and now held at war memorials around both countries, accompanied by thoughts of those lost at war to the ceremonial sounds of The Last Post on the bugle. The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen (known as the "Ode of Remembrance") is often recited.

Australia

Anzac Day is a National public holiday and is considered one of the most spiritual and solemn days of the year in Australia. Marches by veterans from all past wars, current serving members of the Australian Defence Force, cadets, scouts, guides and other uniformed service groups, are held in capital cities and towns nationwide. The Anzac Day Parade from each state capital is televised live with commentary. These events are generally followed by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL Club, often including a traditional Australian gambling game called two-up, which was an extremely popular pastime with ANZAC soldiers. The importance of this tradition is demonstrated by the fact that though most Australian states have laws forbidding gambling outside of designated licensed venues, on Anzac Day it is legal to play "two-up".

Although Australia's official National day is in fact Australia Day, many Australians have now come to regard Anzac Day as the true National day of the country. Despite federation being proclaimed in Australia in 1901, many argue the "National identity" of Australia was largely forged during the violent conflict of World War I, and the most iconic event in the war for most Australians was the landing at Gallipoli. Dr. Paul Skrebels of the University of South Australia has noted that Anzac Day has continued to grow in popularity; even the threat of a terrorist attack at the Gallipoli site in 2004 could not deter some 15,000 Australians from making the pilgrimage to Turkey to commemorate the fallen ANZAC troops.

ANZAC biscuits

Main article: ANZAC biscuit

ANZAC Biscuits are a snack food most commonly made from the primary ingredients of rolled oats, coconut, and golden syrup, thought to resemble biscuits eaten by the Anzacs in the trenches.

Australian Football

Main article: The ANZAC Day clash

During many wars, Australian rules football matches have been played overseas in places like northern Africa and Vietnam as a celebration of Australian culture and as a bonding exercise between soldiers. In 1975 the VFL/AFL first celebrated Anzac Day and the ANZAC spirit with a match of Australian rules football between Essendon and Carlton in a once-off match in front of a large crowd of 77,770 at VFL Park, Waverley, with Essendon coming out winners.

The modern day tradition began in 1995 and is played every year between traditional AFL rivals Collingwood and Essendon at the MCG. This annual blockbuster is often considered the biggest match of the AFL season outside of the finals, sometimes drawing bigger crowds than all but the Grand Final, and often selling out in advance; a record crowd of 94,825 people attended the inaugural match in 1995. The ANZAC Medal is awarded to the player in the match who best exemplifies the ANZAC Spirit - skill, courage, self-sacrifice, teamwork and fair play.

Rugby league

Beginning in 1997, the ANZAC Test, a rugby league test match has commemorated Anzac Day, though it is typically played a week prior to Anzac Day. The match is always played between the Australian and New Zealand national teams, and has drawn attendances between 20-45,000 in the past.

Domestically, matches have played on Anzac Day since 1926 (with occasional exceptions). Since 2002, the National Rugby League (NRL) have followed the lead of the Australian Football League, hosting a match between traditional rivals St George Illawarra Dragons and the Sydney Roosters each year to commemorate Anzac Day in the Club ANZAC Game.

New Zealand

People departing Wellington's cenotaph following the conclusion of the 2007 Dawn Service

New Zealand's Commemoration of Anzac Day is similar, though on several occasions the day has become an opportunity for some groups for political protest. In 1967, two members of the left-wing Progressive Youth Movement in Christchurch staged a minor protest at the Anzac Day Ceremony, laying a wreath protesting against the Vietnam War. They were subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct, but that was not the last time that the parade was used as a vehicle for protest. In 1978, a women's group laid a wreath dedicated to all the women raped and killed during war, and movements for feminism, gay rights, and peace used the occasion to draw attention to their respective causes at various times during the 1980s.

The number of New Zealanders attending Anzac Day events in New Zealand, and at Gallipoli, is increasing. For some younger people, the sombre focus of the day receives less emphasis than do the more celebratory aspects of a National holiday. For most, though, the day is an occasion on which to formally pay tribute and to remember.

Dawn Parades and other memorials Nationwide are typically attended by the New Zealand Defence Force, the New Zealand Cadet Forces, members of the New Zealand Police, New Zealand Fire Service, Order of St John Ambulance Service (Youth and Adult Volunteers) as well as Scouting New Zealand, GirlGuiding New Zealand and other uniformed community service groups.

Anzac Day now promotes a sense of unity, perhaps more effectively than any other day on the National calendar. People whose politics, beliefs and aspirations are widely different can nevertheless share a genuine sorrow at the loss of so many lives in war.

Paper poppies are widely distributed by the Returned Services Association and worn as symbols of remembrance. This tradition follows that of the wearing of poppies on Remembrance Sunday in other Commonwealth countries. [1]

The day is a half-day holiday in New Zealand, as per the Anzac Day Act 1966.

Turkey

In Turkey the name "Anzac Cove" was officially recognised by the Turkish government on Anzac Day in 1985. In 1990, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing, Government officials from Australia and New Zealand as well as most of the last surviving Gallipoli veterans, and many Australian and New Zealand tourists travelled to Turkey for a special Dawn Service at Gallipoli. The service at dawn in Gallipoli has since become popular to attend on Anzac Day. Upwards of 15,000 people have attended services in Gallipoli. Until 1999, the Gallipoli Dawn Service was held at the Ari Burnu War Cemetery at ANZAC Cove, but the growing numbers of people attending resulted in the construction of a more spacious site on North Beach, known as the "ANZAC Commemorative Site" in time for the year 2000 service. [2]

Other overseas ceremonies

Troop review on 25 April 2005 (Rarotonga)

• In the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga Anzac Day is also commemorated to honour their soldiers who participated in the campaign.
• In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea there is a dawn service at the Bomana War Cemetery. Bomana is the location of thousands of graves of Australian and New Zealand Servicemen who were killed during the New Guinea campaign of World War II.
• In Newfoundland, Canada, the Gallipoli offensive is commemorated each year on 25 April by the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who hold a march from Government House through the streets of St. John's ending at the National War Memorial. Members of both the Australian and New Zealand armed forces are invited each year to participate in the march and wreath laying ceremonies. Other Canadian communities also mark Anzac Day; Calgary has had a Cenotaph Service annually at Central Park with participation from the local military.
• In London, England, a Dawn Service is held at the Australian War Memorial, and more recently constructed New Zealand War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner.
• In France in the towns of Le Quesnoy and Longueval and in the town of Villers-Bretonneux (on the next closest weekend) because on April 25, 1918, the village of Villers-Bretonneux was liberated by the ANZACs.
• In Indonesia, Anzac Day is commemorated in Jakarta, Balikpapan, Bangka Island, Bandung, Denpasar and Surabaya.
• In Israel Anzac Day is commemorated at the Commonwealth War cemetery on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
• In Hodogaya a suburb of Yokohama, Japan, there is a small service held in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery.
• In the United States of America, Anzac Day is commemorated at the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood, California. The New Zealand and Australian Consulates-General rotate hosting the service. The largest expatriate community of New Zealanders and Australians are in Southern California, hence this location. In New York a small mid-morning tribute to Anzac Day is commemorated in the roof garden in the British Empire Building in Rockefeller Plaza, 620 5th Avenue, overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the Sunday nearest April 25; it is an annual tradition that has been celebrated at this locale since 1950. In Washington DC Australian and New Zealand servicemen and women commemorate Anzac Day at a Dawn Service at the Korean War Memorial on April 25 each year. In Hawaii the Marine Corps hosts an Anzac Day Ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as "The Punchbowl", where several dignitaries from many countries including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the U.S. attend to commemorate the memory of all who have fallen for their country.

The Ode

A veteran on Anzac Day.

This is the verse of the ode that is said during the minutes of silence on Anzac Day:

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. Lest we Forget

Criticism and protests

Anzac Day has been criticised by a small number of Australians and New Zealanders. It has also been marked by protests against contemporary wars; for instance, protests against the Vietnam War were common Anzac Day occurrences during the 1960s and 1970s, and recent years have featured protests against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Criticism began in earnest in 1962, prior to the Vietnam War protests, with the publication of Alan Seymour's classic play, The One Day of the Year, which dramatised the growing social divide in Australia and the questioning of old values. In the play, Anzac Day is critiqued by the central character, Hughie, as a day of drunken debauchery by returned soldiers and as a day when questions of what it means to be loyal to a nation or Empire must be raised.

In the aftermath of the anti-war demonstrations over Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, interest in Anzac Day reached its nadir, especially among among baby boomers. On April 26, 1975, The Australian newspaper covered the marking of Anzac Day in a single story; in 1985, reports of anti-war protests were included in its coverage.

In 2007, the issue of allowing conscientious objectors to march was raised in New Zealand, with Peace Action Wellington saying that "conscientious objectors are the real heroes of Anzac Day, which ... has ceased to be a day when people commit to 'never again' wage war and instead has become a celebration of the military and armed conflict".

Despite the objections of some, Anzac Day now draws record crowds, with an increasing number of those attending being young Australians, many of whom now attend ceremonies swathed in Australian flags, wearing green and gold T-shirts and beanies and with Australian flag tattoos imprinted on their skin. While this has been seen as a reflection of younger generations of Australians wanting to honour the sacrifices made by the previous generations, some critics contend that this revived interest in Anzac day is a manifestation of the success by former conservative Australian prime minister, John Howard, in encouraging a greater feeling of national pride in the Australian community during his decade in power, involving an uncritical and self-serving embrace of the Anzac legend. According to Dr Martin Ball of the University of Melbourne, although the Anzac revival was well under way before Howard came to office, the Prime Minister encouraged this phenomenon through his willingness to talk up the Anzac tradition and its importance in contemporary Australia. Ball argues that:

The Anzac tradition holds many values for us all to celebrate, but the myth also suppresses parts of Australian history that are difficult to deal with. Anzac is a means of forgetting the origins of Australia. The Aboriginal population is conveniently absent. The convict stain is wiped clean. Postwar immigration is yet to broaden the cultural identity of the population... The problem with the simple patriotism of Anzac is that it runs the risk of making some of us are more Australian than others.

Others have also suggested that the revival in public interest in Anzac day, particularly amongst the young, is problematised by the fact that these younger Australians have not themselves experienced the true barbarity of war as did those of the First, Second and Vietnam War eras. It has been asserted that the increasing participation of the young in Anzac Day events has injected a carnival element into what is traditionally a solemn occasion for remembering fallen soldiers. In 2005 much criticism surrounded the daybreak service at Anzac Cove after the screening of a rock concert-style commemoration of popular musical artists, with the site being left strewn with rubbish. Similar criticisms were voiced following an Anzac Day ceremony at the Australian war memorial at Villers-Bretonneux in France, where some young Australians were witnessed to climb a tall tower and loudly yell patriotic chants those standing below.

In 2005 a study commissioned by Multicultural Affairs Queensland found Anzac Day commemorations may offend some religious and ethnic minorities, with some immigrants associating Anzac Day with the "increased nationalism" expressed most graphically at the 2005 Cronulla riots. The report, carried out by Monash University and the Australian Multicultural Foundation, was based on interviews with 183 people in Queensland and Victoria.

External links

• Anzac Day 2008: A Guide for New Zealanders
• Anzac Day: All you need to know about Anzac 2008 events in the Somme
• Significance and History of the Poppy
• Anzac Day: A Guide for New Zealanders
• Anzac Day: Many useful links
• Anzac Gallipoli Tour
• ANZAC Quotes
• Australian Service Records from World War I
• Commemorative Australian site
• Dawn Service at Gallipoli
• History of Anzac Day and the Red Poppy (NZ History)
• History of the Dawn Service
• Reports of Anzac Day 2007 in Brisbane, Australia
• The last Gallipoli veteran, Eric Abraham

• Trenches on the Web
• Visit Gallipoli