Anzac Day: 100 Years
April 25, 2016
Soldiers take part in a memorial service during an Anzac Day event. Anzac Day is a patriotic holiday in Australia and New Zealand that honors people who served in the armed forces. © Kristian Dowling, Getty Image
Today, April 25, is the 100th anniversary of the first Anzac Day, a patriotic holiday honoring current and former members of the armed forces of Australia and New Zealand. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the name of the combined overseas force that fought in World War I (1914-1918). Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. The campaign was a costly failure for the Allies, who left Gallipoli after eight months of brutal and fruitless warfare. Allied soldiers from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere fought troops of the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with the Central Powers, at Gallipoli. Some 127,000 people from all nations died there, including 10,700 Anzacs. On April 25, 1916, services in Australia and New Zealand marked the first Anzac Day to remember the fallen of Gallipoli.
Anzac troops at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. Credit: © Philip Schuller, Fairfax Media/Getty Images
By the 1920’s, Anzac Day had become a legal holiday and expanded to include all 46,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders killed in World War I. After World War II (1939-1945), the holiday expanded again to honor Australians and New Zealanders killed in all wars, as well as veterans and those still serving in the armed forces.
Today, Anzac Day services are held throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as at Gallipoli’s “Anzac Cove.” In Sydney, the dawn service begins at 4:30 a.m. at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, where many young men enlisted to fight in World War I. Cenotaph means empty tomb. War memorial cenotaphs honor soldiers whose bodies lie elsewhere. The solemn service includes a reading of the “Ode of Remembrance,” part of the poem “For the Fallen” written by British poet Laurence Binyon soon after the outbreak of war in 1914:
“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 audience then responds: “We will remember them.”
National ceremonies begin a few hours later in Canberra and Wellington, the capital cities of Australia and New Zealand.
A girl places a poppy on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, on Anzac Day. The Roll of Honour lists members of the Australian military who died in times of conflict. Red poppies have been used to commemorate soldiers killed in battle since the end of World War I. © Lukas Coch, EPA/Alamy Images
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