I'm writing this at 9am, which is far earlier than I have any right to be awake, especially given that today is a public holiday. Except that the public holiday is the reason that I was up so early, because today is ANZAC day.
ANZAC stands for Australia & New Zealand Army Corps, and ANZAC day is a day off we have every year on April 25th to commemorate the landing of soldiers at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915. Over the course of the campaign, thousands of Australians and New Zealanders were killed (along with many more British, and opposing Turkish soldiers). Tactically it was... let's say 'limited in success'. It did end with one of the best-executed retreats in military history, though. I guess there's that. The day has sort of expanded to be a bit like remembrance day,
Despite not being our official national holiday (that'd be Australia Day, January 26th), ANZAC day is really important. Almost to the point of being sacred. Australia day has fireworks and parties, but only ANZAC day can drag thousands of people out into the cold for a dawn memorial service. I find it really fascinating, and I'm not sure why. I think part of it is the solemnity, that you can get so many people to be serious about something at once. Part of it is how big it is - like, everyone has some idea of what it's about, and it's treated with absolute respect. Part of it is the fact that we remember a very specific military failure instead of a great victory, which is significant in ways that I can't begin to express in this sleep deprived state. Part of it is that it's still so close in the past - only just passing out of living memory.
And part of it - which is why I'm posting this here - is how insular it is. I'd wager you probably haven't heard of ANZAC day. It wouldn't even rate a mention on any kind of international news. But here, it makes the front page, and closes down cities, and is one of the few public holidays for which my uni will actually cancel classes (Easter? Nope. Labour day? Nope. Foundation day? Nope. Queen's Birthday? Nope.). Which is a really interesting example of how, despite how much people like to rant about 'global villages' and 'monocultures', something like today manages to still have significance for one group of people and not others.
So I'm going to go ahead and drop some questions for you guys to answer in the comments. Have you ever heard of ANZAC day before this, even vaguely? And do you have any significant days where you come from, which you think I might not have heard of, and which have a particular 'feel' to them?
Thanks for reading.
Here in Canada I haven't heard of ANZAC Day. But I find it interesting and kind of similar to Remembrance Day here. None of the schools I have been to shut down on Remembrance Day (Nov 11th), we just have a moment of silence and then go about our daily activities.
ReplyDeleteBut significant days.... There is Canada Day (July 1st)... which means fireworks when you're little but beer and BBQ when you're older. But I expect that's really similar to July 4th in the States.
So, off the top of my head I have nothing. But I'll think about it.
We've got Remembrance day too, and we don't close schools either. Which is odd, because it's pretty much the same deal, only we take ANZAC day much more seriously, which is why I was wondering if anyone else has something similar.
DeleteI think Canada day, Independence day and Australia day are all in the same class - fireworks and barbecues and booze. And people inexplicably wearing flags.
I've heard about ANZAC day! Although I find it surprising that your uni still has classes on Easter since most of my friends got Easter breaks in their unis (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide) But it could be cause Malaysia and Australia are so geographically close, plus I have relatives there and stuff. Also I watch Australian news sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAs for significant days, I personally find that the new year celebrations for the three main races (Chinese, Malay & Indian) are the most festive and eventful. It's like equivalent to Christmas for the Western countries. Although Christmas is big here on the decoration aspects.
We get Easter Monday off, but not Easter Friday.
DeleteHaving 3 new years sounds awesome. I like that New Year's is a proper festival in Asia, where here it's just an excuse to get drunk and watch some mediocre fireworks.
There's still plenty of the getting drunk and fireworks watching here :)
DeleteI think the drunkness and the fireworkness is universal
DeleteI haven't heard of ANZAC Day. It sounds like "Día del Veterano y de los Caídos en la Guerra de Malvinas" (Malvinas War anniversary April 2nd). It's a public holiday too, clearly that's the most similar thing i'm going to find her considering that's the only war we fought in this century.
ReplyDeleteSignificant days... well, I always liked Independence Day (9th of July), Yeah, I'm such a patriot. Well, to be fair It's because it's my birthday and I always loved not having school XD (In fact, when I was a child, my father used to told that it was because of my birthday)
I'm sure it's still because of your birthday!
DeleteTo be sincere, I went back in time to 1816 with my time machine and planned the signing of the declaration of independence. A small job for an entire life of birthday without school or work... Also that's why we have naked ladies in a lot of our emblems, they didn't like my idea of orcs flying dragons...
DeleteI've never heard of ANZAC day... I love the name, though!
ReplyDeleteWe don't really have any of those "military" holidays, like commemorating a war, or a war event or things like that. Might be because we don't really have anything significant or to be proud of, might also be because we already have a ton of religious holidays. You know, there is Three Kings, St. Josef, Ascension of Christ, Ascension of Maria, Immaculate Conception, Pentecost, All Saints, and of course Easter and Christmas... that's a lot of free days! In fact, most of my weekends in May/June are 4 or 5 days long because there's a holiday on Thursday or Tuesday and we get the days off.
We do have two non-religious holidays: May 1st (state holiday, day of work, I think?) and October 26 (national holiday, they signed the thingy about neutrality on October 26, 1965).
We actually have on day, which is not a holiday, that has a special feeling about it.
It's very local and there is no English name for it, so translated it's something like "Heart of Jesus Fires". It has a long historical background that I don't know, but basically one night thousands of fires are lightened on the mountains and it's always very pretty and nice. Some people meet up to go on the mountains and have some party there, but I never did that... I'm too much of a city girl and it's more a rural thing ;)
Here are some pictures:
The fancy variation: http://www.schuetzen-fiss.at/images/hjf_09_gr.jpg
Less fancy, but also pretty: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Ifinger_Mountain_-_Herz_Jesu_Fires_-_South_Tyrol.jpg/320px-Ifinger_Mountain_-_Herz_Jesu_Fires_-_South_Tyrol.jpg
Now I will stop rambling because I just got a package from Amazon. Books, woohoo!
That looks really cool!
DeleteEnglish public holidays are as follows:
ReplyDeleteNew Years Day
Good Friday
Easter Monday
May Day
Spring Bank holiday
Summer Bank holiday
Christmas Day
Boxing Day.
Fun facts about public holidays:
The Brits don't have a holiday on May 1st, but instead we have a public holiday on the 1st Monday in May instead. Sadly I can't spend this day doing whatever I was, as my University in all it's wisdom has scheduled lectures for it :(
We have an extra bank holiday this year, as it's the Queen's diamond jubilee, which is an excuse to eat to much food and get drunk!
Why is it called a bank holiday? and yay for Queen E!
DeleteThey're called bank holidays, quite literally as it's when the banks close for a holiday (other than weekends). All of our public holidays are bank holidays.
DeleteAnd Queen E is on it like a car bonnet!
Jeez, why do banks need holidays? I mean, it's not like they're ever open when you need them anyway. (I dunno if it's everywhere, but here they seem to think it's acceptable to open at 10 and close at 4. Which is ridiculous.)
Delete