As well as being Easter Monday it is also
ANZAC Day here, and a public holiday in recognition of more secular and personal sacrifices made by Australian and New Zealand service personnel over the decades. It is a day for
dawn services at War Memorials, for parades of old soldiers through city centres, and for the Last Post and a minute's silence at the annual
ANZAC Day game between the Aussie Rules clubs of Essendon and Collingwood. It's a day on which remembrance of those who fought for freedom comes before sweary blogging about it, and therefore one on which I won't post anything else.
Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives. You are now living in the soil of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 1934
