ANZAC Day

This past Wednesday, April 25th, was ANZAC Day in Australia.  ANZAC Day honours the Australian and New Zealand soldiers who fought and died at Gallipoli (Turkey) during World War I. Though Australia and New Zealand also celebrate Remembrance Day, ANZAC Day is considered one of the most important days of the year and is of much greater significance. Each year on April 25th, many memorial services are held around Australia with the biggest services taking place in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.

Stacy and I decided to attend the dawn service at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. The service took place at 5:30 AM (at the same time the soldiers arrived in Gallipoli many years earlier).  This meant that we had to get up bright and early in order to get ourselves a seat. We arrived around 4:45 to find that there were already about 25,000 people there ahead of us and that seats were filling up quickly!

Dawn Service - Early start to the day!

25,000+ People at the service

After the service, everyone was invited to lay poppies on the Wall of Honour inside the memorial and pay their respects to the fallen soldiers. It was a very humbling experience to watch thousands of people laying poppies on the wall next to the names of their loved ones.

Post-Service Line-up to enter the Memorial

Inside the War Memorial - Still dark outside

Someone Placing a Poppy on the Wall

WWII Wall of Honour

Rather than placing our poppy on the Wall of Honour, we decided to place it next to the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

All in all, it was a good service and a great experience. We had hoped to go to the parade later in the morning (10:30 AM) as well, but we were both pretty tired after getting up so early and we had a BBQ at a friend's place to attend later in the day. Perhaps next year we'll attend the National Ceremony and Parade instead of the Dawn Service.