Anzac Day

This morning my daughter, her friend and I rose at 4 am and caught a bus into the city to attend the Anzac Day dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance.

Anzac Day is a public holiday to remember fallen servicemen and women. Memorial services and marches are held all over the country.

"Anzac" stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The original Anzacs fought with great tenacity in Winston Churchill's misguided and doomed Gallipoli campaign of World War I, in which 10700 Australians and New Zealanders died. The Gallipoli landing took place on April 25, 1915, and April 25 was named Anzac Day in 1916.

It was awe-inspiring and humbling to stand in the dark amongst a crowd of tens of thousands, listening to the last post and the male choir, and hearing stories of war.

As a wife, daughter and mother of three sons, I think how terrible it must be to live in a country at war, and how long those years must have felt for those on the home front. I have even greater sympathy for the sweet boys, some innocently seeking adventure, others conscripted into horrors beyond their wildest imaginings, who went off to fight in other lands, often with very little training or preparation.

Here are some of the things we saw after the sun rose.

This cenotaph commemorates the battles in which the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) participated in World War II.

All the flags flew at half- mast as we remembered those who died, and are still dying, at war.

the Eternal Flame

A stone trough in memory of horses who died at war. Nearly 1 million horses died during World War One.

These two statues form the Driver and Wipers (Ypres) Memorial

The east side of the shrine. The writing on the wall reads "THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY A GRATEFUL PEOPLE TO THE HONOURED MEMORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED THE EMPIRE IN THE GREAT WAR OF 1914–1918.

Yellow roses in a garden on the eastern side of the Shrine.

The traditional food for Anzac Day is Anzac biscuits. It is very important to call them biscuits, not cookies.

Here is the recipe that I always use though I understand that coconut was first used as an ingredient in 1927, long after WWI. These biscuits are best slightly undercooked so that they are slightly chewy.

ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup rolled oats

3/4 c coconut

1 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp bicarb (baking) soda

2 tbsp boiling water

1 cup sugar

4 oz (125 g) butter

1 tbsp golden syrup

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Melt butter and golden syrup together. Mix soda with boiling water, add to butter mixture (it will foam up), stir into dry ingredients. Spoon dessertspoonfuls of mixture onto a greased tray; allow room for spreading. Bake for 20 minutes in a slow oven (250-300F). Cool on trays. Makes 2-3 dozen depending on size.

Kate xxx