Last Sunday, April 25, was ANZAC Day, the day on which we remember and honour all those who served (and are serving) in the armed forces of Australia and New Zealand. Our family has had many members in the forces; fathers, mothers, grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. Mum even has a VC winner in hers (search Jeffries VC for earlier posts with his story). The national ceremony is held on the parade ground of the Australian War Memorial here in Canberra. The actual parade ground stretches back down ANZAC Parade in line with the old and new Parliament houses. Before Covid there were hundreds of service personnel marching in the ANZAC ceremonies, but last year during lock down things were very low-key. This year some cities had large marches, some were locked down again and had none. Canberra scaled the ceremony back to the full ceremonial parade and wreath-laying but the march-past was cut back to just the unit and commemorative banners and a few veterans from each unit. Two banners that I liked are the replica of the one made at ANZAC Cove during the campaign, and the 8th RAR one that had me excited because at a distance it looks like it says BEAR. The ceremony finished with a flypast by an F-35. Even flying as slow as it could there was not much time to get a photo so I gave full marks to the oldies for their efforts. Here's hoping that next year we will be back to full parades and marches.
Labels: Canberra, ceremony, military
# posted by Bart Bear @ 1:59 pm
