Australia Day

Wednesday the 26th was Australia Day. What is Australia Day, you are likely asking? Well, here's the brief history lesson.

Australia Day celebrates the day formal possession of the land in New South Wales (the state I am in) in 1788. So, though Australia is still a Commonwealth country of England and doesn't have an independence day, Aussies celebrate the day the first land was taken possession of for colonization.

Now, what do Aussies do to celebrate? Well...there are free concerts with Aussie acts like Altiyan Childs (won the Aussie X factor), Jessica Mauboy and Stan Walker (I think they've won Aussie Idol competitions), and Justice Crew (maybe won Aussie SYTYCD). Plus bands like Gangajang and Cold Chisel. I know, none of these may be familiar to you guys. That's okay. :) Also, new Aussie citizens participate in a ceremony and receive their certificates that they are official citizens. And, the Aussie of the year award is given out.

That's all the public things. What do private citizens do? There is a cricket game to watch, barbies to have. If you saw the Sam Kekovich video I posted on fb, you'll know that lamb is the main barbeque item. Meat pies are common, and some people have pavlovas. Lots of Aussie flags worn around the shoulders of people, temporary tattoos, etc. People have Aussie cups and plates and wear their Aussie flip flops. It's just like the 4th of July atmosphere. Summer day (and it was almost 100F), bbq, family and friends getting together, fireworks and a show of patriotism. Normally Aussies aren't showy about their patriotism but they are on Australia Day.

So, I have Vegemite on my toast, watched the Aussies lose the cricket game, hung out with Mick since he got the day off (yay!), and had meat pie for dinner. Claire had told me their would be fireworks that night, so Mick and I took the kids and our cameras. We drove to Red Hill lookout (I've posted pics from there before- you can see Parliament House, Lake Burley Griffin, and a ton of the city) and scored a nice place on the rock wall to sit or stand and watch the fireworks. Though the kids didn't like the 45 minute wait, we got a key spot and took some fireworks vids. See below!

So my first Australia Day was great and it felt very special. :) Got to spend the day with Mick and the night with the kids and we had a really good day. I'm including a couple of videos and pics. My vid from my camera doesn't have audio, but when the heart shaped fireworks went off, everyone said "Awwwwwww!"