Celebrating ANZAC Day

From Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last Sunday we celebrated ANZAC Day here in New Zealand. ANZAC Day is a day actually celebrated by two countries, New Zealand and Australia, similar to America’s Veterans Day. The initials stand for “Australian New Zealand Army Corps.” Australia and New Zealand joined forces at the beginning of World War I. They entered Gallipoli, Turkey; an ally of Germany’s, to try to end the war before it got bigger. They actually failed, and after 9 months and many casualties, they retreated. That was the beginning of ANZAC Day but has evolved with different wars since. Now, the “returning soldiers” (we call them veterans) are honored on this day and everyone wears a red poppy. (From the poem, “Flanders Field.”)

The red poppies are actually made here in Christchurch by a group of handicapped adults and circulated all over the country. Several years ago New Zealand tried to hand this job off to the Japanese, but the people in Christchurch petitioned for it to stay here, with the handicapped group. I was surprised to see so many people at church wearing the red poppy.

As I was playing prelude at church, the bishop came up to me to tell me he had just gotten word from the Stake President that we were to sing the New Zealand National Anthem in Sacrament Meeting. This day is celebrated with parades but since it fell on Sunday this year, we were in church and missed the parades. I get the idea that the New Zealand anthem is not known by everyone, especially not the Maori verse, so copies were distributed around the audience. I had actually brought my Lincoln University Choir book with the accompaniment of the National Anthem, which was good, since all they had that day was the melody and the words. We were asked to stand, a member of our ward gave a short memorial and we paused for a moment of silence. Then we say the song, “God save our New Zealand.” It really is a beautiful song and I hope I did it justice.

As I stood there, I remembered back on our last November Veterans Day. I spent it in Cedar. I went with Dad to the Master’s Singers patriotic concert that Howd sang in. It was wonderful. Later that week Dad and I went to the final dedication of the Cedar City war memorials on the banks of Coal Creek. As I stood for that moment of silence here in New Zealand on ANZAC Day, I was honored by the people who have come before me…especially those in our families …who have served to protect us from those who would take away our freedom. Happy ANZAC Day!