- ANZAC DAY SPECIAL: EDITORIAL: -
26.04.2003 18:51:42
ANZAC Day has become one of our most enduring commemorative public holidays.
Its form and meaning has undergone change and elaboration.
But it has maintained core elements in spite of changes in our society which have seen the significance of other anniversary days become blurred by controversy, self-interest and partisanship.
At ANZAC Day’s core is the creation act, the landing at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915, which gave rise to the initial celebrations of national pride and patriotism.
That gruelling and costly campaign and the bloody war which followed was to add to that layers of meaning which included national unity and sorrowful commemoration.
Another major war and several smaller ones has seen the strengthening of the ANZAC spirit, the commemoration of courage and sacrifice.
Increasingly though there has emerged parallel to these themes that of hope for a future of enduring peace.
The day has proved adaptable and it has drawn together disparate groups, from returned soldiers to peaceniks, from feminists to radical cultural groups.
Participation has changed. The big and solemn parades with their major military presence of the years between the world wars and for many years after the second, have given way to the more participatory gatherings of citizens young and old.
It is against that background that Cantabrians on April 25 turned out at services throughout the province from dawn and into the afternoon to mark the day.
For everyone the significance of their participation and meaning of the day will have had different shades and nuances.
But all knew that the basic reason they were there was the sacrifice of the soldiers of the original ANZAC landing.
The last of the Gallipoli veterans are gone.
The last ANZAC and last known Australian to have served in the Gallipoli campaign, Alec William Campbell died in May last year aged 103; while New Zealand’s last living link was Doug Dibley, a stretcher bearer at Gallipoli, who died at Rotorua in December 1997, aged 101.
acknowledge:
by My Town
http://www.mytown.co.nz
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