Anzac Day

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Anzac Day is a public holiday celebrated every 25th April, originally to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of the troops from Australia and New Zealand who fought at Gallipoli in 1915 (during the first World War). After the second World War, it became a commemoration for Australians and New Zealands killed in that war, and subsequently, in all wars in which they have been involved. It is a holiday in Australia, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Niue.

ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. They formed part of an allied expeditionary force sent by Winston Churchill to Turkey to try and capture the Istanbul, to prevent the Turks from being involved in the war. However, the attempt was unsuccessful, and was abandoned after eight months of stalemate leaving over 8,000 Australians, 2,700 New Zealanders and 33,000 other Allied forces dead. Turkish losses were even higher, and are estimated at over a quarter of a million.

The date when the Allied forces first landed at Gallipoli was 25th April, 1915, and this date was officially named Anzac Day the following year, although it did not become an official public holiday until 1920 in New Zealand and 1921 in Australia, and even then, not all states observed it. The first year when all the Australian states observed Anzac Day as a public holiday was 1927.

Traditionally, ANZAC Day starts with dawn services at cenotaphs and war memorials around all participating countries. The services are often televised, and the thoughts behind the ceremonial are very similar to Remembrance Sunday or Armistice Day. The "Last Post" is played and an excerpt from Laurence Binyon’s "For The Fallen" is read.

Anzac Day around the World

Apart from Australia, New Zealand and the other places already mentioned, Anzac Day is also commemorated in many places around the world. In London, England on ANZAC Day there is a service at the Australian War Memorial at Hyde Park Corner. Commemorative services are held in Los Angeles, New York, Washington and Hawaii, USA. In Newfoundland, Canada the Royal Newfoundland Regiment march from Government House to the National War Memorial in St. Johns, where a service is held and wreaths laid, while in Calgary, there is a Cenotaph Service at Central Park. There is a dawn ceremony at Bomana War Cemetery in Papua New Guinea, where thousands of Anzac troops killed in the New Guinea campaign of World War 2 were laid to rest. Two French villages, Le Quesnoy, Longueval and the town of Villers-Bretonneux commemorate Anzac Day on the closest weekend in memory of the liberation of Villers-Bretonneux by the ANZACs on April 25, 1918. Anzac Day is also commemorated in Balikpapan, Bangka Island, Bandung, Denpasar, Jakarta, and Surabaya, Indonesia, at the Commonwealth War cemetery on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel and at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Yokohama, Japan.