Anzac Day Dawn Service

The Anzac Day ceremony is held every 25th of April to commemorate the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

I was surprised at my own enthusiasm to attend the Dawn Service this morning. As the name suggests, it was held at dawn. Having slept at 5-ish the past week or so, I figured that I wouldn't be sleeping by the time I needed to get up for the service, but I ran out of things to do during the spare time waiting for 4am, so I decided to take a short nap.

Waking up at 3.45am, I was so tired and so sleepy, I just wanted to get back to sleep. But I said to myself, hey if I'm going to do this, I might as well go all out for it. So I did. Ai Lin's alarm rang at 4am. When she woke up, she asked, "Remind me why I'm doing this again.", I replied, "Cause we're siao and have nothing better to do.". Which is technically true, the "siao" part that is. Hehehehe...

When we got there, to the War Memorial where the Dawn Service was held, we felt that our waking up and attending the service was very worth it. It was so wowifying to see so many semangat people, there were more than 25000 people there. It was also such a beautiful sight, what with the sky still dark and lots of people were holding candles.

Ai Lin and I decided to get candles and poppies too, one to join in the 'fun', two to warm ourselves up with what little heat the candle will produce. Oh yes, it was freezing cold. The temperature must have been somewhere between 0 and 5 degrees. I was all prepared with a beanie and gloves, and still I was shivering.

Anyway, the service started off at 5.30am with a welcome speech, followed by a hymn and wreathlaying, the Anzac dedication, the playing of "The Last Post", a one minute's silence, a poem entitled "In Flanders Fields", the ode, prayers, another hymn, an address by the Chaplain Air Commodore who is also the Principal Air Chaplain for the Anglicans, yet another hymn, a benediction and a reveille and ended with the national anthem. (Yes, I was just summarising from the program booklet. I do not have such a fantastic memory.)

The entire service ended in about half an hour. Not too lengthy and boring yet long enough for people to get the message across and to honour the sacrifices of the soldiers.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. I got to learn about some of Australia's past and learnt about the sacrifices of the soldiers who fought for their country's freedom. I also had the rare chance to see Australia at dawn *wink*.