Celebrations - Anzac Day (East Auckland) Traditional Cache

During an eventful camping trip over the New Year’s period of 2015 into 2016, the S.E.A.C (South East Auckland Crew) made a New Year’s resolution that each member of the team would place a cache in 11 out of the 12 months of 2016. This is the fifth cache in a series that we (AucklandReindeer and chrisandmum) will place throughout the year for this particular challenge. Each cache will give some information about the day and the reason for the celebration chosen for that month. We hope you like it and will learn something from it.

ANZAC Day is a day to for New Zealanders and Australians to commemorate those who have been killed in or served in any war where New Zealand and Australian troops have fought.

The reason for having the 25^th April as the day of commemoration is that that was the day that the New Zealand and Australian troops started their assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey during the World War I which turned out to a futile mission. After eight months of fighting, 87,000 Turkish and 44,000 British Empire troops were dead, of those 8,500 were Australian and 2,779 were New Zealanders. The ANZACs made up one sixth of the total casualties in this campaign.

The word ANZAC is an acronym for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers that fought at Gallipoli where not originally known as Anzacs. It is not known exactly how this term came about, but it is believed a sergeant had a rubber stamp made with A.N.Z.A.C. on it as a convenient shorthand for referring to these troops. It was originally used of those soldiers who fought at Gallipoli, but later came to be used of any soldier from Australia or New Zealand.

The first Anzac Day was just a reaction to the news of what happened at Gallipoli. It was observed on 30^th April 1915, five days after the Gallipoli assault. Government offices were closed for half a day, flags flown and patriotic meetings were held. The public started demanding some form of recognition of what happened and in 1916 the first official public holiday for Anzac Day came occurred.

The reason for holding a service a dawn is that this was the time at which the attack on Gallipoli happened. The way in which the services have developed has been through the involvement of returned service men and have changed from a more religious service to a more military service.

The symbol of Anzac Day, the red poppy, is a remembrance of Flanders Field where a great battle was fought in World War I. It was the first flower to grow and bloom out of the mud and soil at Flanders after the battle. The first Poppy Day was held in 1922 after the ship that was bringing silken poppies from France was late for the original Armistice Day celebrations that they were destined for. It proved so popular, that they continued to be made for Anzac Day.

For more information on Anzac Day, visit here.

This cache has been placed somewhere appropriate to the celebration, so take some time to sit and think about the reason for this celebration.

• Please replace the cache where and as you found it.
• Bring your own writing implement of choice.
• Co-ordinates obtained with a phone, so may be ±5m.