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"Australia and New Zealand commemorate the ANZAC Day public holiday on the 25th of April every year to honour the bravery and sacrifice of the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), and of all those who served their country. ANZAC Day is also a public holiday in Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa and Tonga.
The ANZAC tradition began during World War I with a landing on 25th April, 1915 at Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean coast. Because of a navigational error, the ANZACs came ashore about a mile north of the intended landing point. Instead of facing the expected beach and gentle slope they found themselves at the bottom of steep cliffs, offering the few Turkish defenders an ideal defensive position. Establishing a foothold, the Anzacs found an advance to be impossible. After eight months of stalemate, the Allies withdrew, leaving 10,000 dead amongst the Anzacs.
Although numerically the ANZAC were a minority of the half-million Allied men who served at Gallipoli, the troops from the two young nations were often at the vanguard and became renowned for their doggedness despite what the British regarded as a lack of discipline. A full 10% of the New Zealand population (then just under 1 million) served overseas during World War I, and New Zealand had the highest casualty and death rate per capita of any country involved in the war. Australia had the highest casualty rate of any military involved in the war.
The last known Gallipoli veteran of any nationality, Alec Campbell of Tasmania Australia, died in May 2002.
Beginnings of the Memorial Day
On April 30 1915, when the first news of the landing reached New Zealand a half-day holiday was declared and impromptu services were held. The following year a public holiday was gazetted on 5 April and services to commemorate were organised by the returned servicemen.
From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and New Zealand, Anzac services were held on or about April 25, mainly organised by returned servicemen and school children in cooperation with local authorities.
ANZAC Day was not gazetted as a public holiday in New Zealand until 1921 after lobbying by the RSA. In Australia, at the 1921 state premiers conference it was decided that ANZAC Day would be observed on the 25 April each year. However it was not observed uniformly in all the states.
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Commemoration
The Last Post is played at an ANZAC Day ceremony in Port Melbourne, Victoria, 25 April, 2005. Ceremonies like this are held in virtually every suburb and town in Australia and New Zealand on ANZAC Day each year.
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The Last Post is played at an ANZAC Day ceremony in Port Melbourne, Victoria, 25 April, 2005. Ceremonies like this are held in virtually every suburb and town in Australia and New Zealand on ANZAC Day each year.
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ANZAC Day, marked throughout NZ, AU
In Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC Day commemoration features solemn "dawn services", a tradition started in Albany, Western Australia on 25 April 1923 and now held at war memorials around both countries, accompanied by thoughts of those lost at war to the ceremonial sounds of the Last Post on the bugle. The fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon's poem For the Fallen is often recited.
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Australia
Marches by veterans from all past wars and current serving members of the Australian Defence Force are held in capital cities and towns nationwide. The ANZAC Day parade from each state capital is televised live with commentary. These events are followed generally by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL Club, often including a traditional Australian gambling game called "two-up", which was an extremely popular pastime with ANZAC soldiers. The importance of this tradition is demonstrated by the fact that though most Australian states have laws forbidding gambling outside of designated licensed venues, on Anzac Day, it is legal to play "two-up".
Although Australia's official national day is in fact "Australia Day", many Australians have now come to regard ANZAC Day as the true national day of the country. Despite federation being proclaimed in Australia in 1901, the national identity of Australia was largely forged during World War 1, and the most iconic event in the war for most Australians was the landing at Gallipoli. In recent years ANZAC Day has grown in popularity in Australia and even the threat of a terrorist attack at the Gallipoli site in 2004 could not deter some 15,000 Australians from making the pilgrimage to Turkey to commemorate the fallen ANZAC troops."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Day