Lest We Forget

[The Bard Babe]

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow,

Staunch to the end against odds uncounted,

They fell with their faces to the foe.

 

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.

 

Lest we forget

 

 

For those of you that do not know, today (April 25th) is ANZAC Day. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and today, in the year 1915, Australian and New Zealand troops landed on Gallipoli, the first military action of a very young nation. This resulted in many deaths that are remembered and honoured every day on April 25th, and have been for the past 98 years.  This link elaborates on the actual events of Gallipoli and gives a good idea on its significance today, particularly to Australians.

 

I myself performed this morning at a Dawn Service, one of many that occur all over the country, mimicking the time of the attack made so long ago. Nowadays, Dawn Services are commemorations encompass more than the remembering of the ANZAC spirit, also allowing a time for contemplation on the effects of war as a whole, from the spirit of the ANZACs to a dedication to the soldiers fighting for our country today. The most profound moment for these contemplations is a two minute silence that occurs in every ceremony, bracketed by bugle calls of the 'Last Post' at the beginning and either the 'Rouse' or the 'Reveille' at the end. These services often include things such as scripture readings, performances of the national anthems of New Zealand and Australia, speeches made on the subject of war and poetry readings, most especially the one listed above, The Ode. This poem is recited in every ANZAC Day service, no matter when or where it is, either both stanzas listed above, or just the last one, and every reading is in Australia ended with the phrase, 'Lest we forget', usually repeated by the audience. The phrase was not included in the original poem. Such services are usually held at Army Barracks, but other commemorative services that are held throughout or near the day are held at schools and other such institutions. ANZAC Day is a public holiday in Australia. 

 

The Dawn Service performance is one I have done four years in a row now, and ANZAC Day is something I have taken part in since I was first brought over to Australia through ceremonies first in primary school assemblies and now in high school performances at nearby Army Barracks. I am struck every year by the sheer amount of people that turn out to the service. It is not an easy task to be at Barracks at four thirty in the morning, it is not fun waking up in the cold and the dark, but every year, they come. Our service is one of many performed in those Barracks, and those Barracks are one of many in the city, in the state in the country, and Barracks are only one place in which services can be performed. I return from these ceremonies navigating courses home around streets shut by ANZAC Day marches. Everywhere, there are Australians solemnly, but proudly recalling their fallen heroes, from the time of the ANZACs up to the present day soldiers serving overseas.

 

Every year, the two minutes silence is profoundly deep and contemplative. Even the smallest child knows not to interrupt it, if not what it is they are supposed to be thinking about, and yet, there are a few that accuse ANZAC Day of glorifying war and other unpleasantness. I was conflicted with this ideal myself in the last year and in my two minutes and all through the service this year I found myself truly contemplating it and questioning my own beliefs in a deep way only achievable in the most profound moments of mass silence and emotion.

 

As a reasonably pacifistic person, there are many things about war I do not agree with and I have no urge to step up to serve my country. I have no particular loyalty to my country, I do not feel bound to it and I have very little sense of patriotism or anything similar. It is easy for someone like me with no nationalistic tendencies and a comfortable life to accuse those who celebrate ANZAC Day as idolising warmongers and murderers and all those names that get thrown around when pacifists decide to fight. However, the silence this morning afforded me a moment of clarity and I realised that that is not what ANZAC Day is about. That is not what soldiers are or were. The ANZACs were the spirit of a young nation, they attacked, they lost, they fought, they died, they stuck out for eight months in a horrendous battle that was supposed to last a very short time. The ANZACs were so much more than the guns they fired, and remembering them has nothing to do with glorifying the blood they spilt or they themselves bled.

 

The ANZACs stood up against odds uncounted, they were proud, brave, courageous and determined, they refused to be discounted and forgotten, they stood up for what they believed in and they fought for it, whether that belief was in defending their people, their country, or simply surviving another day. I cannot fathom from my easy way of living what goal or belief pulled the ANZACs through, but whatever it was, they fought for it, they hung onto it and many of them paid for it with their lives. The virtues required to do so are deserving of great respect, honour and remembrance even if the beliefs are not ones you happen to agree with.Those beliefs may not be the beliefs of every person in today's society, but they were the beliefs of the ANZACs, the beliefs of a time and a world so far removed from our own that any right we have to make moral judgements has been cast away by the far reaches of such a vast separation. The ANZACs embodied all that was Australian and continue to do so to this day, and that is why Australians wake up in the cold and dark to go and spend a moment remembering fallen heroes they refuse to surrender to time's unreliable memory. They, we, refuse to let the ANZAC spirit die.

 

That's why, for nearly one hundred years, Australians have spent two minutes silence, once a year, contemplating and remembering all that occurred in 1915 and that is why every Australian trumpeter is terrified of hitting the wrong note in the Last Post, that is why every school-child has an ANZAC Day service every year of their school-life and why people march through towns and streets, brandishing feelings of national pride, solemn pride for our diggers, past and present, louder pride for our country and the spirit of it, all those good virtues the ANZACs represented. That is why almost every Australian can recite the last verse of The Ode by heart, why we work so hard to keep the ANZAC spirit alive, making a point of appointing one day a year simply to remember it.

 

Lest we forget.

 

 

 

I honour the ANZACs with this post, through sharing with you my moment of clarity and my own opinions, however if any Australians or Kiwis (I'm sorry you're so poorly represented in my account, I know little of the Kiwi perspective) are offended by anything I have written or find it to be false or represent our countries in a way you don't approve of, I will remove this post or sections of it without any issue.

[Senexx]

Lest we forget

[Andrej]

Well said BB.

 

I found this both imformative and moving. Being a patriot and serviceman myself, I can relate to the sense of pride that you talked about when your country celebrates this day.

[Andrej]

Well said BB.

 

I found this both imformative and moving. Being a patriot and serviceman myself, I can relate to the sense of pride that you talked about when your country celebrates this day.

[Starrik]

Lest we forget.

 

I personally have had the honour of marching in an ANZAC day parade twice, as a member of the Scouting Movement.

[Nyanna al'Meara]

*nod* Very well said BB.

I know what you mean by being pacifist and not inclined to be at all patriotic, but yes, the ANZACS truly deserve our commemoration. They not only showed great bravery and sacrifice, but embodied [the beginnings of?] Australasian "mate-ship". The day is not a glorification of war. It's sparing a thought and a moment of silence to the unsung heroes, men from several young countries so far from where everything was happening, who joined to put aside their differences and fight together for, as you said, these their beliefs. Together. In a time still strongly influenced by and imprinted with the myths of colonisation including stuff like "Pakeha were superior, Maori inferior, etcetc", but Maori men fought side by side with Pakeha at Gallipoli. And its never been forgotten by either. ANZAC day honours this too.

 

We Will Remember Them.

Lest We Forget.