#LightUpTheDawn

For the first time in 101 years, the streets, cenotaphs and war memorials have been quiet.

ANZAC Day is normally celebrated or memorialised all over Australia and New Zealand, in small towns, cities, suburbs. Returned Veterans marching, parading alongside serving members of the Armed Forces, cadets corps, community groups, first responders, Police.

But not this year. Not in 2020.

Just as in 1919, the first year for communities to gather together after the Great War had ended and stand side by side with returning and returned soldiers, this year there are no parades, public services or gatherings. Just as in 1919, in 2020 it is once more a virus which has prevented us from getting up in the dark and assembling before dawn.

This time though a social media campaign #LightUpTheDawn grabbed our attention. It was promoted by the Returned and Services League in Australia and the Returned and Services Association in New Zealand, in newspapers, on radio and television. It was a very simple premise. To not forget.

To stand together, but alone, at the end of our driveways, on our front porches, balconies or terraces. Buglers and trumpeters were encouraged to play the Last Post and Reveille from their homes. ANZAC services broadcast on radio and television could be played on smart devices at our gates.

School children were encouraged through their online at home learning platforms to make poppies to display in windows or on doors, some really creative people made candle holders from empty milk bottles. All over our two countries ANZAC biscuits were baked and enjoyed.

And so, at 6am we stood, next to our neighbours but socially distant instead of shoulder to shoulder. We listened to the Ode, we listened and some sang our national anthems, we observed a minutes silence. We reflected. Then we retreated, inside, back to our bubbles.

COVID-19 has changed our lives and the way we live so much, just as WW1 did for our ancestors. There seems to be a renewed sense of community recently. People are looking out for each other, being mindful of our actions, building resilience and doing the same old things in new ways. Will that survive I wonder in our post-COVID world.

There are age old rivalries between our countries, but they are in good jest.

Who has the best rugby team ? – and all the trophies ?

Who should own bragging rights to Pavlova, ANZAC biscuits, Lamingtons, Fairy Bread, Split Enz, Crowded House, Phar Lap, Stan Walker, Russell Crowe (oh alright, Australia can have that one – lol)

We tease each other in fun, but mostly we still like each other – just like siblings. Forged from the time when we were both British Colonies together, far away from the nation which claimed sovereignty (contentiously). The nation which sent their criminals to serve their sentences – out of sight out of mind – and later encouraged citizens to pack up their families and livelihood to seek new opportunities on the other side of the world. Strengthened in the trenches of WW1. It is a sibling kind of thing with mate-ship at its base.

Here is hoping that ultimately, as we tentatively step out of our COVID-19 bubbles and cautiously celebrate that we seem to have flattened the curve through not too dissimilar methods, that we can safely expand our separate bubbles into a slightly larger  ANZAC one.

Lest We Forget.