Once upon a time there was a day called Easter, a day commemorating the distribution of chocolate eggs by bunny rabbits and people getting to have time off work. Yay for Easter coming up this weekend, may the chocolate flow freely...But for me there's a more important day in April...The 25th.
Easter means a four day weekend for me and this year I'm taking the following Tuesday and Wednesday off as Thursday 25th April is ANZAC Day here in Australia, a public holiday. That means I have seven days off in a row! I'm looking forward to that.
ANZAC DAY is one of the most important national days for me and here in Australia, a day that commemorates the anniversary of the first major military action by the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps forces in World War One. There will be services all around the world including at ANZAC Cove in Gallipoli, where those troops landed beginning what is now the ANZAC legend, and at other significant battlefield's on which our troops served.
I've lost mates on the battlefield and have others actively serving still so, for me, this is their day and is a day on which I, and select others, get together and think about them all, tell lies and talk bullshit in their honour.
I will be attending the Dawn Service at the Adelaide War Memorial on the 25th so it'll be an early 4am wakeup and then we'll head down to the Australian Light Horse Memorial for the service to commemorate the thousands of horses that carried their troopers into battle so valiantly during World War One. I urge you to read this post I did on the Australian Light Horse which outlines their distinguished service and the tragedy that befell the thousands of Aussie horses at the end of the war. Take the time to read it here please.
It's a solemn morning and tears will fall openly as we collectively remember our fallen, those who came back to face the struggle of life after serving, and those still active at home and around the world. But that soon gives way to the celebration of life, the one we live now. You see, those poor souls who paid the ultimate price did so that we could live on and so we do, whilst respectfully commemorating their sacrifice. I'll be spending it with a small group of friends and we'll hoist a few to those who are lost, but will never be forgotten.
I'm not completely sure of the significance of the day called Easter however many will respect the day and mark it in whatever way they see as appropriate. The same with ANZAC Day. The time off I have over this period will be spent productively engaging with life and in the pursuit of the best version of it I can muster, and looking after my wife as she has some medication to take which will make her feel sick.
ANZAC Day holds a great deal of significance to many Australian's and we'll come together to remember, and commemorate, those who offered up their lives upon battlefield's far flung from home so that the people of those countries, and Aussie's back home, can live ours in freedom and comfort.
I took these photos when I spent a week exploring and paying my respects on the battlefields of World War One - The Western Front, in France and Belgium.
Australian War Memorial - Villers Bretonneux, France. This massive construction holds the names of thousands and thousands of Australian's who lost their lives. A huge service will be held here on ANZAC Day, as always. Interestingly, in World War Two the very top tower was used as a snipers hide and bullet holes are still evident in the walls from gunfire aimed his way.
Le, Hamel, France - Australian Memorial - Note old World War One trench systems still visible and the flags of many nations flying: USA, Britain, Canada, France and Australia. These trenches held men from both sides over the years of the war and one gets a strange feeling when walking on them knowing what terrible things occured there.
Whitney, Sergeant, Henry. 1509. 1st Battalion, Australian Infantry. AIF. 20 August 1916 - Back in 2009 we followed Henry's war on the Western Front until his death. His body was never found so his name is carved into the walls of the Australian War Memorial at Villers Bretonneux with thousands of other's. On our return we compiled all of the photo's, snippets and information into a book which we bound and handed to his family whom we know well. It was an emotional moment for them to receive it and some small relics dating back to the war which I found on the battlefield on which their relative fought.
I understand that some may have different opinions about war, the futility of it, the way people are coerced or forced into it or the fact governments and corporations start them as part of their own agenda's...
ANZAC Day is not about that for me though, it's not the appropriate time to lay blame or promote agenda's. It's about the people who serve for whatever reason, the people who come back broken and those who simply don't come back at all. It's about showing them respect, supporting their families and and showing them that their loved ones' are not forgotten, that their sacrifice was for something.
That's just me though. Maybe it's because I have seen mates march off and not return, their families struggle through the shattered pieces that remain of their lives and mates who survived the battlefield only to end life by their own hands and the PTSD complications they faced. It is for those people I commemorate the 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 ~