Social distancing regulations mean this is an Anzac Day like no other, but grey nomads and the wider Australian community still managed to find an innovative and moving way to pay their respects to those who have served.
Instead of attending the traditional Anzac Day services in towns and cities across Australia to mark the 105th anniversary of the landing of Anzac troops at Gallipoli, tens of thousands instead heeded the call to head outside and ‘Light up the Dawn’.
Mini services were held in driveways, at front gates, on verandahs, and outside caravans. With marches and organised services closed to the public, many streamed national and state services on their devices and TVs, and held up torches and candles. They listened to the Last Post and The Ode and to the national anthems of both Australia and New Zealand … and they remembered.
The Director of the Australian War Memorial, Matt Anderson, said earlier this week that it would be a memorable time.
“Whilst we’re all going to be standing apart, physically, we can still stand together in spirit,” he said. “So, I think that it will be intensely personal, and I hope moving way to commemorate Anzac Day this year.”
It may have been a very different Anzac Day for many Australians but, as always, the Ode, from a poem called ‘For the Fallen’ by Laurence Binyon summed up the emotion of the day best:
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.