I just relaxed today and watched Dexter online. Since I didn't do anything, I decided to talk about the holidays in Australia as my mom requested. Of course they have things like Christmas and New Years. The Christmas decorations have been out in the stores for a few weeks now. Kmart has a display of artificial trees and stocking stuffers. It seems so funny to have Christmas in the summer, but I guess the first Christmas was in the heat of the Middle East.
They also have different holidays. One is Australia Day on 26 January. This celebrates when the first ships came in 1788 to Sydney. From the sounds of what goes on, it seems like the Fourth of July for Americans. They also have Anzac Day on 25 April. ANZAC means Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and the day commemorates those that have fought in war. I guess it's kind of a combination of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Another holiday is Sorry Day. This is on 26 May, which is also my birthday. Sorry Day is for the remembrance of the Stolen Generations and the mistreatment of Aboriginal people. Another holiday is the Queen's Birthday. This is celebrated on the second Monday of June, except in WA because of the Perth Royal Show. The final holiday that wikipedia talks about that we don't celebrate is the Melbourne Cup, which is the first Tuesday of November. This is a big horse race.
You may have noticed that there is no mention of Halloween. It isn't really celebrated here. Sure there was a party in the village yesterday, but I think that it is more of an excuse to have a party. There is a lot of influence from America because of tv, movies, and the internet that I think it has been adopted. There is one store in Kardinya that sells costumes and they had a Halloween section, but other than that nothing is mentioned. I actually came across an interesting article while looking up information on this about protesters wanting it declared an official holiday in Australia. The article also talks about Valentine's Day being celebrated just because of the American influence.
Don't forget to comment if there is anything else that you want me to talk about.
1 comment:
So I remember you posted a picture of the "Australian Christmas tree" that wasn't like ours, but are the ones in Kmart like ours or different? Can you post some pictures of the decorations?
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