Australia: Anzac day - old values return

On April 25 Australians celebrated their most patriotic national holiday - the Anzac Day commemorating the country's war veterans. In Sydney, a record crowd of 12,000 turned up for a traditional prayer service celebrated at dawn at the local War Memorial. Later during the day, tens of thousands welcomed a gigantic parade of veterans of both World Wars, Vietnam, Korea and smaller regional conflicts marching through the city centre. The parade included not only Australians, but also war veterans from other friendly nations, including a contingent of WWII Red Army veterans living in Sydney.

The Anzac Day commemorates 11,000 Australian soldiers who died in 1915 during a failed British landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey. The landing took place on 25 April and was followed by over 8 months of fierce fighting in which most Australian and New Zealand soldiers died. This year, thousands of Australian young people travelled to Turkey to visit the cemetery and attend a dawn prayer service. In recent years Australian media claimed that the Anzac tradition cannot survive in the age of progress and globalism. The young Australians thought otherwise.

Henry L. Marconi Pravda.Ru Sydney, Australia