Australia Day - Shifting the Date

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tony dragun said:
By changing the date of Australia Day. My kids always look forward to January 26. Some greenie wants to take it away from them.

That's how.
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Well, if the date was changed, they could simply look forward to celebrating it on another date. I think they would actually cope, even if you wouldn't.

Mind you, being Australian is something to celebrate every day of the year. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you to teach your kids that. We don't need a specific date to celebrate how lucky we are.
 
sherb said:
Well, if the date was changed, they could simply look forward to celebrating it on another date. I think they would actually cope, even if you wouldn't.

Mind you, being Australian is something to celebrate every day of the year. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you to teach your kids that. We don't need a specific date to celebrate how lucky we are.
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You sound like one of those 'I think' commentators on Q & A. I don't give a hoot what you think. Just as you have the right to not care what I think.

Also don't try and parent train me. We are absolutely aware of how lucky we are. My daughter is that lucky that she hits UWA next year. See, I can cope.

But my some of my daughter's favourite memories revolve around Australia Day on the Bunbury Inlet. On January 26. No way you greenies are taking that away from my grandkids.
 
tony dragun said:
But my some of my daughter's favourite memories revolve around Australia Day on the Bunbury Inlet. On January 26. No way you greenies are taking that away from my grandkids.
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Is it the date that made those memories special, though? Or the location, company, activities, atmosphere etc?

I.e. would those memories still be as special if they occurred on, for example, the 5th of February?
 
TheWoodenSlug said:
Is it the date that made those memories special, though? Or the location, company, activities, atmosphere etc?

I.e. would those memories still be as special if they occurred on, for example, the 5th of February?
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Australia Day is 26 January. Cannot answer your hypothetical..
 
Upgrayedd said:
I struggle to understand why we started celebrating New South Wales day in W.A.
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It is just so damn convenient having a PH near the end of January. It marks (mentally) the end of the summer holiday period and back to a normal routine for the new year. Usually just a few days out from school starting again, that sort of thing.
 

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tony dragun said:
You sound like one of those 'I think' commentators on Q & A. I don't give a hoot what you think. Just as you have the right to not care what I think.

Also don't try and parent train me. We are absolutely aware of how lucky we are. My daughter is that lucky that she hits UWA next year. See, I can cope.

But my some of my daughter's favourite memories revolve around Australia Day on the Bunbury Inlet. On January 26. No way you greenies are taking that away from my grandkids.
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That's a fair point.

I was speaking to an older colleague at work and he absolutely loved celebrating Guy Fawkes night as a kid and then some bloody do-gooders made it illegal in the 70's. I was interested about this holiday, thinking a huge bonfire and the odd cracker would be an awesome night! He said it was all just a good excuse for a piss up and get together, which sounds fair enough to me. I asked what it was meant to be all about, and was horrified to learn it was historically about bashing the Catholics. I have no issue with the party but don't celebrate for the wrong reasons.
 
aCunningPlan said:
That's a fair point.

I was speaking to an older colleague at work and he absolutely loved celebrating Guy Fawkes night as a kid and then some bloody do-gooders made it illegal in the 70's. I was interested about this holiday, thinking a huge bonfire and the odd cracker would be an awesome night! He said it was all just a good excuse for a piss up and get together, which sounds fair enough to me. I asked what it was meant to be all about, and was horrified to learn it was historically about bashing the Catholics. I have no issue with the party but don't celebrate for the wrong reasons.
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When I was kid back in the UK, Guy Fawkes night was always a big night. For weeks we would gather wood for our bonfire. You would have to guard it overnight in case another gang of kids tried to steal it or set fire to it. Then on the night a parent would light it and it would go up and burn all night. You could look across the horizon and see all the other bonfires. Each family would have a few fireworks each to set off for all to see. People would make food that you would only eat on bonfire night. But every year there were a few idiots round the country who would walk into a fire or hold the fireworks. The local councils used it as justification to ban community bonfires and fireworks and replace them with an organised bonfire for a whole town. It was never the same. I never saw Guy Fawkes as anti-Catholic, more anti-establishment. But November 5th was always the day. To change it to another day would have lost a big part of its meaning.
 
aCunningPlan said:
That's a fair point.

I was speaking to an older colleague at work and he absolutely loved celebrating Guy Fawkes night as a kid and then some bloody do-gooders made it illegal in the 70's. I was interested about this holiday, thinking a huge bonfire and the odd cracker would be an awesome night! He said it was all just a good excuse for a piss up and get together, which sounds fair enough to me. I asked what it was meant to be all about, and was horrified to learn it was historically about bashing the Catholics. I have no issue with the party but don't celebrate for the wrong reasons.
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Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated, but it has not been a public holiday for over 100 years.

Nothing wrong with bashing Catholics.
 
sorted said:
When I was kid back in the UK, Guy Fawkes night was always a big night. For weeks we would gather wood for our bonfire. You would have to guard it overnight in case another gang of kids tried to steal it or set fire to it. Then on the night a parent would light it and it would go up and burn all night. You could look across the horizon and see all the other bonfires. Each family would have a few fireworks each to set off for all to see. People would make food that you would only eat on bonfire night. But every year there were a few idiots round the country who would walk into a fire or hold the fireworks. The local councils used it as justification to ban community bonfires and fireworks and replace them with an organised bonfire for a whole town. It was never the same. I never saw Guy Fawkes as anti-Catholic, more anti-establishment. But November 5th was always the day. To change it to another day would have lost a big part of its meaning.
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When I was a kid, there were two Bonfire/Cracker Nights each year:
Empire Day was observed in state schools from 1905 with a program of addresses, pageants and patriotic songs, with children swearing allegiance to King and Empire with a loyal declaration. Also known as Flag Day, Empire Day saw the city decorated with flags on principal buildings and cable trams. The Empire Day Movement issued badges and Union Jack cards, with flags and buttons sold to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Fund, Red Cross and Queen Victoria Hospital. During Empire Shopping Week, shoppers were encouraged to buy Australian-made products or goods of Empire origin. Commemorative meetings, dinners and speeches were hosted across city and suburbs by the English Speaking Union, the Australian Women's National League, the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Colonial Institute. Local patriotic societies hosted suburban street carnivals, and in the 1930s a torchlight procession through the decorated streets of Surrey Hills and Balwyn climaxed at an annual Empire Day bonfire and fireworks hosted by the Advance Balwyn League. Empire Day was primarily a Protestant celebration, often the subject of sectarian debate and opposed by a Catholic hierarchy whose annual festival equivalent was St Patrick's Day. Opponents of the movement occasionally interrupted commemorative activities: in 1929 communists were accused of throwing stink bombs during an Empire rally at the Royal Exhibition Building. Originally celebrated on 24 May (Queen Victoria's birthday), popular observance declined in the postwar period. Renamed (British) Commonwealth Day in the 1950s, and moved in 1966 to 11 June (Queen Elizabeth II's birthday), it was more commonly known as Cracker Night and celebrated by bonfires and the lighting of fireworks until stricter government regulation reduced their availability.
​
PS Guy Fawkes' Night was definitely, for a long part of its history, intended and understood to be anti-Catholic, but by the 50s it had ceased to be anything but an excuse for a good time. Like Australia Day. And the numerous Catholic kids and families in the neighbourhood joined in just as enthusiastically as everyone else.

​
 
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