australia day.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to celebrate our first Australia Day.  While some people see it as having negative connotations, similar to Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Day in the US (holidays that some believe celebrate the invasion and overhaul of indigenous cultures), others see it as a national holiday focused on celebrating friends, family, and country.  As I imagined, it felt similar to the 4th of July because it occurs in the summer, is associated with parades and carnivals, and the day ends with a big fireworks display.  It is also an Aussie tradition to celebrate with a barbie & a beer, much like the American way of celebrating the 4th.  

Candice and I dressed in our Australian best (I in my Netherlands soccer shirt and she in her Mackinac Island t-shirt), and made our way to Swanston St to watch the parade.  For being the “main event” in the city that day, it was relatively easy for us to get a front row spot against the fence to watch the passing spectacle.  The first thing I observed is that the parade was filled with an overwhelming amount of cultural groups honoring Australia Day with signs of thanks to Australia for allowing them to make a new home here.  It was actually very moving for me, seeing all these cultures with their different traditions come together to honor what has become their home.  We saw groups from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, India, Denmark, Scotland, Tibet, Lebanon, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Solomon Islands, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Iran, and many others.

In addition to the different cultural groups, the parade included a lot of fun & interesting clubs and organizations, similar to what you might find represented in the Freemont Solstice parade in Seattle, WA.  A few of my personal favorites included the Melbourne costume club (including the best characters from fantasy literature), a Star Wars club, and the totally awesome Vintage Cycle Club.  After the parade, we spent the afternoon walking around a carnival/outdoor market in our neighborhood and had our first fried potato on a stick (or “latkes on a stick!” as Candice referred to them).  We ran into some very festive costumes, including a brass-playing duo wearing Australian Flag suits, and two people posing for photos in giant Australian flag sumo suits.

To wrap up the day, we headed down to the waterfront near our apartment to watch the fireworks.  We found our favorite spot on the dock (the same spot we had watched the New Years fireworks), and enjoyed what was a really impressive show.  After quite a few years watching fireworks I feel like I’ve seen most of the standard types usually on display, but there were a few fireworks I had never seen before.  My favorite was a group of fireworks that illuminated the sky in red and green clumps to form the upper branches of a great tree.  The show also had smiley faces, hearts, and plenty of red, white and blue.  I was really hoping for a giant dragon (a la the Fellowship of the Ring), but I guess I’ll have to wait for next year.

When I returned to work on Tuesday I told my coworkers that we celebrated Australia Day by attending the parade in town and watching the fireworks, and was excited to hear their thoughts on the events as well.  I assumed in my naivety that this was what most Australians do, so you can imagine my surprise when not a single one of my coworkers even knew there was a parade, and none of them had attended the fireworks.  I guess that explains why it was so easy to get a good spot at the parade…

happy year of the horse!

Now all of Melbourne is in the midst of celebrating the Lunar New Year.  We’ll be out enjoying the festivities over the next few days and will write a post about it soon.  In the meantime, we wish everyone a very prosperous and happy new year!

BK