Remember, Remember, the 11th of November

After seeing all the war memorials in Berlin, I thought I should probably make a trip out to our biggest war memorial - the Shrine of Remembrance. And what better day to do that than Remembrance Day?

Formerly known as Armistice Day, it was originally to celebrate the anniversary of the day that a ceasefire was signed, ending the first world war. At the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of the year, 4 years of fighting ended. It has now been renamed Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries, and is also a time to remember those who have given their lives in service to their country.

There were a lot of people at the Shrine today. I had planned to arrive a little before 11, but showed up over an hour early by accident. Which was lucky, as it turned out some of the ceremonial proceedings actually started at 10. There was someone making announcements, detailing some of the history behind Remembrance Day, as well as Australia's involvement in various wars. There were also volunteers handing out programs and plastic poppies.

There's also the Eternal Flame (it seems it isn't quite eternal, as it has gone out quite a few times, but the design is so that it reignites itself).

This year was the 99th anniversary, and to prepare for the 100th, a group has been making a crocheted blanket of poppies, which was on display this year. This is how long it is after 3 years (there's two of them, and they're those red carpet things you see on the ground):

And up close:

The overall mood was quite sombre. Once the official ceremony started, you could only hear a few kids making noise, the sound of the army band and the official speakers. The RAAF museum had a couple of replica planes fly overhead a couple of times.

A cannon was fired a few times (it was a lot louder than I was expecting, and the first shot scared me), the Last Post was played, and we observed a minute of silence. Two poems were read, In Flanders Fields, and Ode to Remembrance (which was read by one of the few remaining WWI veterans we still have). I always found this verse particularly touching:

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.

Everyone echoed, "Lest we forget" at the conclusion of the poem. Then we sang the national anthem.

Which made me think of one of the policies you can add in Democracy 3:

(National anthem at the start of news)

I don't consider myself particularly patriotic. I do think Australia is a great country, but we don't have the flag flying at our house or anything like that. But hearing all the stories today made me feel really grateful that we have what we have. I think war is horrible, and it's one of those games that nobody wins (global thermonuclear war, anyone?). And singing the national anthem made me feel incredibly patriotic (although I really only mumbled the words, because it was so quiet I was afraid other people would hear my bad singing voice - definitely not because I don't know the words!).

I wonder if singing the national anthem every day would be good or bad for the country? I'm leaning towards bad. When people get too worked up thinking their country is the best, well... that's how the Fire Nation came to attack the Air Nation. I think we have a good amount of history and reverence in Australia. Talking about the way we treated aborigines is no longer taboo. I think as a whole, we're not super keen to go to war. If we did push the national anthem every day, I think people would resent it, and if not, we're too far away from anyone except New Zealand to be able to effectively wage war, and nobody wants that country except hobbits. (I jest, we fought together - ANZACs!)