Everyone in Australia knows “lest we forget…” that young men from Australia and New Zealand, some as young as 15 years old, were sent to a terrible massacre on the shores of Gallipoli. If this was such a bloody and terrible military defeat for the allied forces, why celebrate this?
Anzac Day is not actually celebrated. It’s actually more of a commemorative event with services popularly held at dawn. Why ANZAC Day is significant is simple…for when men are sent to war, fighting for a known cause, being prepared to sacrifice, suffer and possibly die, there arises a new spirit of identity; for that’s what separates strangers one from another.
It’s this united spirit that forms a nation and marks one’s identity as an Australian.