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ANZAC Day 2020

ANZAC Day occurs on the 25th April. It commemorates all New Zealanders
killed in wars and also honours returned servicemen and women.
This resource has been set up to help you understand more about
ANZAC Day and how important it is to New Zealand. The date itself marks
the anniversary of the landing of New Zealand and Australian soldiers – the
Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. The aim was to capture the
Dardanelles, the gateway to the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.
At the end of the campaign, Gallipoli was still held by its Turkish defenders.

Thousands lost their lives in the Gallipoli campaign: 87,000 Turks, 44,000 men
from France and the British Empire, including 8500 Australians.
To this day, Australia also marks the events of 25 April. Among the dead
were 2779 New Zealanders, about a sixth of those who served on Gallipoli.
It may have led to a military defeat, but for many New Zealanders then and
since, the Gallipoli landings meant the beginning of something else – a feeling
that New Zealand had a role as a distinct nation, even as it fought on the
other side of the world in the name of the British Empire

A typical commemoration begins with a march by returned service personne
l before dawn to the local war memorial. Military personnel and returned
servicemen and women form up about the memorial, joined by other members
of the community. Pride of place goes to war veterans. A short service
follows with a prayer, hymns (including Kipling’s ‘Recessional’ or
‘Lest we forget’) and a dedication that concludes with the fourth verse of
Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen: They shall grow not 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. The last post is
then played, and this is followed by a minute’s silence and the reveille. A brief
address follows, after which the hymn ‘Recessional’ is sung. The service
concludes with a prayer and the singing of the national anthem. Another
ceremony takes place later on the morning of 25 April. Returned service
personnel wear their medals and march behind banners and standards.

The veterans are joined by other community groups, including members
of the armed forces, the Red Cross, cadets, and veterans of other countries’
forces. The march proceeds to the local war memorial. Another service takes
place there, and various organisations and members of the public lay wreaths.
This service is a more public commemoration than the dawn service. It is less
intimate and less emotional. The speech, usually by a dignitary, serviceman
or returned serviceman or woman, can stress nationhood and remembrance.
After these services, many of the veterans retire to the local Returned and
Services’ Association (RSA) club or hotel, where they enjoy coffee and rum
(in the case of the dawn service) and unwind after an emotionally and, for
elderly veterans, physically exhausting event. At the end of the day, the
ceremony of the retreat is performed.

Anzac Day was first marked in 1916 The day has gone through many 

changes since then. The ceremonies that are held at war memorials up
and down New Zealand, or in places overseas where New Zealanders
gather, remain rich in tradition and ritual befitting a military funeral. 

The Anzac Day ceremony of 25 April is rich in tradition and ritual.
It is a form of military funeral and follows a particular pattern.
The day’s ceremonies have two major parts: one at dawn and another,
more public event, later in the morning.

A typical commemoration begins with a march by returned
service personnel before dawn to the local war memorial. Military
personnel and returned servicemen and women form up about the
memorial, joined by other members of the community. Pride of place
goes to war veterans.

A short service follows with a prayer, hymns (including Kipling’s
Recessional’ or ‘Lest we forget’) and a dedication that concludes
with the fourth verse of Laurence Binyon’s For the Fallen:

They shall grow not 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.

The last post is then played, and this is followed by a minute’s
silence and the reveille. A brief address follows, after which the
hymn ‘Recessional’ is sung. The service concludes with a prayer
and the singing of the national anthem.

The Anzac Parade Another ceremony takes place later on the morning
of 25 April. Returned service personnel wear their medals and march
behind banners and standards. The veterans are joined by other community
groups, including members of the armed forces, the Red Cross, cadets, and
veterans of other countries’ forces. The march proceeds to the local war
memorial. Another service takes place there, and various organisations and
members of the public lay wreaths. This service is a more public
commemoration than the dawn service. It is less intimate and less emotional.

The speech, usually by a dignitary, serviceman or returned serviceman or woman, can stress nationhood and remembrance. After these services, many of the veterans retire to the local Returned and Services’ Association (RSA) club or hotel, where they enjoy coffee and rum (in the case of the dawn service) and unwind after an emotionally and, for elderly veterans, physically exhausting event. At the end of the day, the ceremony of the retreat is performed.

The red poppy has become a symbol of war remembrance the world over. People in many countries wear the poppy to remember those who died in war or who still serve. In many countries, the poppy is worn around Armistice Day (11 November), but in New Zealand it is most commonly seen around Anzac Day, 25 April.

The red or Flanders poppy has been linked with battlefield deaths since the time of the Great War (1914–18). The plant was one of the first to grow and bloom in the mud and soil of Flanders. The connection was made, most famously, by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in his poem ‘In Flanders fields’.

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

McCrae was a Canadian medical officer who, in May 1915, had conducted the funeral service of a friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres (Ieper). Distressed at the death and suffering around him, McCrae scribbled the verse in his notebook. In a cemetery nearby, red poppies blew gently in the breeze – a symbol of regeneration and growth in a landscape of blood and destruction. McCrae threw away the poem, but a fellow officer rescued it and sent it on to the English magazine Punch; ‘In Flanders fields’ was published on 8 December 1915. Three years later, on 28 January 1918, McCrae was dead. As he lay dying, he is reported to have said ‘Tell them this, if ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.’