Lest we forget...April 25 Anzac Day

This morning I got up and met Sam and Jim Geltch and his wife at 4:30am. Today is ANZAC Day and we attended a very moving ceremony called the Dawn Service at 5:30 am. Anzac Day is the Memorial Day in Australia and commemorates the landing of Australian forces at Gallipoli during the First World War. The Dawn Service lasts a half hour and pays tribute to those who have sacrificed “to make the world more noble” and recognizes the continual service of those in the Armed Services.
I was struck by two things. First, in contrast to the US (prior to the Iraq war) the participation in the Dawn Service has increased substantially over the last few years unlike our Memorial Day services. There are Dawn Services in every town and City in Australia all starting at 5:30am. In Canberra they expected 30,000 people. It was cold and rainy but m guess is that they had 30,000 people there. The second thing that I was struck by was the participation by young people. High school and college aged kids made up a very large portion of the crowd. Attendance requires that you get up early, walk to the Australian War Memorial and stand in the cool morning for more than a half hour, but families and young people were there.
As I said, the service was simple but very moving. There were two very simple phrases uttered by the crowd…”We will remember….Lest we not forget.”
I went to the Anzac Day game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds with my program officer Julie Comito. The game is traditionally between Collingwood and Essenden, two Australian Rules Football clubs. It was a GREAT game with Essenden, the underdog winning in the last minute of the game. The game was a lot of fun to watch. It moves very quickly and once I got a hang of the rules I really enjoyed it.
Tomorrow, I am going to be a tourist and take a tour along the Great Ocean Road.