Reporting from ANZAC day

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Me and my neighbours just come home (soaking wet due to the weather conditions) from the ANZAC day dawn ceremony commemorated by Australia and New Zealand on 25 April every year to remember members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who landed at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Anzac Day is also a public holiday in the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga. With symbolic links to the dawn landing at Gallipoli, a dawn stand-to or dawn ceremony became a common form of Anzac Day remembrance during the 1920s.

A typical Anzac Day service contains the following features: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, the playing of “The Last Post”, a minute of silence, “Reveille”, and the playing of both New Zealand and Australian national anthems. At the Australian War Memorial, following events such as the Anzac Day and Remembrance Day services, families often place red poppies beside the names of relatives on the Memorial’s Roll of Honour. In Australia sprigs of rosemary are often worn on lapels and in New Zealand poppies have taken on this role.

The Ode
This is the verse of the ode that is said during the minutes of silence on Anzac Day:
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. Lest we Forget