It’s been a few years since we took the family right into the city to watch the Australia Day fireworks. We braved it this year.
The fireworks were wonderful with lots of pre-show entertainment. Unfortunately it got out of hand with a small percentage of the crowd and police had their hands full with a few full on brawls.
For the most part, and certainly where we were situated, it was a good family type atmosphere.
What stunned me was the level of patriotism. Aussies are usually very laid back and in the past I’ve seen most of the crowd sit or begrudgingly stand for the national anthem. This time it was different. Everyone got up on their feet and sang. There was a massive cheer when a huge Australian flag came past being towed by a helicopter. Throughout the evening people would spontaneously start chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie – Oy Oy Oy …….” There were Australian flags everywhere in the crowd.
Could it be that Australians are finally realising what a great country we have?
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Perhaps those were the foreigners who had recently arrived in said Great Country and were happy to be there? 🙂
Yup, they’re all ex-pat Canadians….
Are there those in Aussie-land that criticize patriotism, that call it nothing more than ignorant jingoism?
If there aren’t, would you folks like to come to the USA and take a few back with you?
🙂