From the Brain of Matty

ANZAC Day (25-Apr-04 10:38 am)

It's been a tradition for as long as history tells (which is only like a hundred years), that whenever an Australian soldier dies in combat, he's buried where he fell. I'm not really sure why they do it that way, but they do. There are thousands of Australians buried all over Europe and Africa and the Middle East and Vietnam and every other place we've been at war. They're the boys who never came home. Because of them, there's a small part of Australia everywhere.

Today is April 25, which is ANZAC Day. ANZAC is the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, which is the name given to the Aussies and Kiwis who went to fight for mother Britain in WWI. This April 25 marks the 89th anniversary of the glorious landing at Gallipoli (in Turkey), where pretty much the entire ANZAC landing force was slaughtered because of a British command stuff-up. We don't celebrate the slaughter. We celebrate the honour and bravery of the diggers who did the job they had to do, even when they knew there was no hope. Even the Turks honoured (and still honour) the dead ANZACs, their bravery and sacrifice.

Every ANZAC Day there's a dawn service, with the symbolic raising of the flag, presenting of wreaths, and the playing of The Last Post. And there's a poem they recite every year: Lest We Forget.

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

    from 'For the Fallen', Laurence Binyon, 1914

That's the whole point of ANZAC Day, to remember the fallen, the boys who never came home.

I'm not dead.
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