this morning i was out of bed at 4:40am & out of the house at 5:15am for the dawn service at the east malvern RSL. so here’s how an anzac dawn service goes…
introductions
reading of a poem about how you were there for your mates. how your mates were there for you.
reading of another poem which also included references to their ‘mates’.
trumpet plays (ie the boy plays) the last postas the flag is raised and then lowered to half mast.
a minute of silence (which was really 38 seconds… i counted)
the rouse is played
closing remarks & everyone is invited inside for breakfast.
we stood in the line for a while & then decided we’d head home for brekky instead of waiting for a non-veggie friendly one. the entire ceremony lasted maybe 15-20 minutes & i took a quick count of about 100-120 people there. much more than i figured.
the main dawn service in melb is across the street from where i live (at the shrine of rememberence) & apparently 30k people showed up there according to the news.
around 10a we walked into the CBD for the anzac parade that boy’s band marched in. they end at the shrine so i walked along & then came home to find out the parade was on tv. there were a lot of people out on the streets for the parade. not as many aussie flags as last year but more people. and only 1 anti war protest that i saw (that consisted of 5 people).
the gallipoli dawn service is on tv now. when it’s over they’re going back to live footage of the melb parade. then some more documentaries about the anzacs.
(btw, i’ve heard ‘anzac’ used today to mean much more than just the WWI & WW2 folks but all military)
i guess my big observation of anzac day is how BIG of an event it is. i *think* there’s a veteran’s day parade in nyc. isn’t there? maybe i’m wrong. i’m sure the thing isnt on tv though. here there’s no way to get away from this. and the amt of people who were around today was pretty amazing. there were the old ‘diggers’ (and no i cant explain why they’re called that) who served in the military marching but the crowd at both the dawn service & the parade were generally young & families.
so it’s celebrated more than any military event in the states, it focuses A LOT on ‘mateship’ not the wars and there is a lot of pride involved.
btw, it’s WEIRD watching this service in turkey. theyre ALL wearing big heavy coats with hats & scarves & gloves. weather.com sez istanbul is 6c/about 40f and feels like 3c/about 35f so no wonder but it just looks odd to be bundled up that much.