Australia Day

I mentioned yesterday that Jan. 26 is celebrated every year here as Australia Day. It would be similar to our fourth of July. It is the day celebrated as the founding of Australia. Again as mentioned yesterday, there are some who think it an insult to consider Jan. 26, the day the white settlers arrived from Great Britain, as the founding of Australia since the Aboriginal people were here long before that. On the same day that Aussies celebrate Australia Day, there are some protest parades and they call it Invasion Day. However, in polls that were taken, 87% of Australians were in favor of keeping Australia Day and its celebrations.

We started our day with Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral. This is the church that Andrew had told us yesterday has the largest organ in Australia and one of the largest in the world. The church was beautiful and the Mass was interesting. Typically in a Catholic Church, today would be celebrated as the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time. But here at St. Mary's the Mass celebrated Commemoration of Australia Day. The readings and songs supported the theme. Also, when they prayed for Australia, they referenced it more than once as "this southern land".

An interesting thing I noticed is that during the collection, the ushers passed a basket as usual. But they also held out a cell phone, and people in the pews would hold up their credit card and tap it to the phone. I asked an usher about it afterward, and he said it was a set amount, like $5, and the people just tap the phone and the donation is made. They didn't need to enter any other information, just tap the credit card and they're done. Quite a few people made donations this way. This gives a whole new meaning to "Theology on Tap".

St. Mary's Cathedral

The large organ that Andrew told us about

The closing song at the end of Mass was the Australian National Anthem. The words were as follows: Australians all let us rejoice, for we are one and free. We've golden soil and wealth for toil; our home is girt by sea. Our land abounds in nature's gifts of beauty rich and rare. In history's page, let every stage Advance Australia Fair. In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair.

After Mass we walked through Hyde Park which was across the street from the Cathedral and took pictures of some beautiful flowers and a fountain.

We walked down to the Circular Quay (pronounced Key) where there were many Australia Day activities taking place. In addition to taking pictures of the beautiful harbor area, including the iconic Opera House and Harbor Bridge, we enjoyed many of the day's activities. 

There was a 21 gun salute that took place across the harbor from where we were standing. It was interesting because you would see the smoke first, and then two seconds later, hear the gunshot. At noon, the Australian National Anthem was sung. There were some jet skis parading around the harbor. 

And there was a flyover by jets. Six of them flew over the Harbor Bridge and around the harbor repeatedly for about 10 or 15 minutes. It was very impressive. 

Later a helicopter flew over the area and displayed the Australian flag by hanging it from the helicopter for about half an hour. There was a ferry boat race in the harbor, where four boats competed to see who was the fastest. 

Bungaree

Catherine Hamlin

May Gibbs

Penulwuy

The Quay was filled with Australians celebrating. Two people dressed up as large kangaroos went hopping down the Quay. There was music and everyone seemed to be in a joyous mood. 

There were also food trucks lined up along one street. We stopped at one called The Pharaoh's BBQ and purchased a couple of sandwiches. The food was African, specifically from the country of Sudan. Joe ordered the Signature Lamb Sandwich and I got the Signature Chicken Sandwich. They were delicious. The truck next to that one sold an item called Chips on Sticks. It looked like a helical-shaped potato that was served on a stick. Very unusual. 

Tonight there will be fireworks but I doubt we'll be out and about for that. Hopefully we can see them from our hotel room, which is close to the Quay. 

We really enjoyed our day celebrating with the Australians. They really know how to throw a party and invite the whole country. Everything was done to perfection and it was an ideal way to spend our last day in this beautiful country. Well done, Australia!

Just a note about the future of the blog: Tomorrow we board our cruise ship, the Celebrity Edge. We have a basic wifi package, which claims to be good enough to check email, and not much else. So I'm not sure if the wifi package would support blogging. One option is to type the blog narrative in a Microsoft Word document and hope the wifi allows me to get on just to cut and paste. In this event, the formatting will be different, such as size and type of text, spacing, etc. It's possible I won't be able to include photos, because that incurs further use of the wifi to download the photos. I have no idea of what I will be able to do with the blog. So the options are 1) blog as usual with narrative and photos; 2) blog narrative with no photos; 3) no blog at all. If you go a few days and keep checking the blog, and nothing shows up, you will know that option 3 has transpired.