(no subject)

[pecunium]

April 25th is ANZAC Day

For those who don't know it's the Australian, and New Zealanders' Day of Remembrance for those who fought/died in WW1.

It's referred to in Eric Bogles's And the band played Waltzing Matilda, and the sentiments, still dear; after almost 100 years, in both places, are perhaps best summed up in the first stanza of, For the Fallen

They shall not grow 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

The campaign, for which they are remembered, was Gallipoli. A tragic waste, in a war of tragic wastes; no matter how needful it may have been, the way in which it was waged was horrid. Gallipoli has the glory of putting it into stark clarity, in some way which Ypres, the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchaendale, Chateau Thierry, didn't manage.

Would that we could find that trick, the one we thought; for a brief moment, we'd managed, to end all wars. But we haven't, and odds are we won't.

So, we have Armistice Day, and Memorial Day, and all the other days.

Today is ANZACDay

Lest we forget.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

A bunch of years ago I spent ANZAC Day at Gallipoli.

B

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It seems to be quite the thing to do. I saw (when searching out links) a number of travel agencies specialising in it, and no sense that it was at all dodgy.

If I were to visit Gallipoli, I think that should be the day I'd like to be there.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize it beforehand. I joined a day tour to the various monuments and trench sites -- I really didn't appreciate how close the trench lines were until I saw them -- and the bus was filled with Australians.

B

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

It must of been a bunch of years ago indeed, the number of attendees on ANZAC Day has grown a lot in the last several years (up to 15,000 at dawn), well past the area's infrastructure's ability to deal with comfortably. I visited in May 1998, deliberately avoiding ANZAC Day. The experience on a 'normal' day is very different from how the over-crowded event has been described to me.

Our small bus-load virtually had Lone Pine Cemetery to ourselves (as well as most of the other spots we visited). This contrasted with Chunuk Bair http://www.mch.govt.nz/emblems/monuments/ww1.html#gal (where many the NZ missing/unidentified are memorialised) and the Turkish memorial - it happened be Ataturk's birthday or somesuch, and the areas of significance to Turks had crowds, TV crews etc.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

1993, I think.

It wasn't all that crowded, just a few Australia and New Zealand package tours, and another couple of busses filled with random travellers.

B

[errolwi.livejournal.com]

Thanks for noting the day.

People often compare it to a USAn visiting Gettysburg. As the number of Aussies and Kiwis visiting Europe for multi-year periods grew in the 1990s and 2000s a trip there has become fairly common for those now aged 25-45.

Small point, although it is said 'An-Zac', it is written 'ANZAC Day' (originally Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) or sometimes 'Anzac Day'.