April 25th – Ultimate European

ANZAC Day with Contiki

Visit Gallipoli, see the historic sights of Turkey and attend the memorial ANZAC Day dawn service at ANZAC Cove on Contiki’s 46-day Ultimate European Concept itinerary from $5490*.

Take this unique opportunity to be there at the Dawn Service to pay your respects for the people who fought for our country and all we have today. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

On top of visiting ANZAC Cove you will also enjoy a holiday through France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and more – 17 countries in all! Contiki will take you to the must see sites but also take you beyond the usual hotspots, right into the heart of each destination.

Contiki’s 46-day Ultimate European Concept trip departing March 28, 2006 will overnight at the Dawn Service site on the evening of April 24/25 and is priced from $5490* per person including the food fund, there are still places available but you better be quick to confirm your place.

The ANZAC Day ceremony

Each year the commemorations follow a pattern that is familiar to each generation of Australians. A typical ANZAC Day service contains the following features: introduction, hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, “The last post”, a period of silence, “The rouse” or “The reveille”, and the National Anthem.

The History of the ANZACs

ANZAC Day – 25 April – is one of Australia’s most important national occasions. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces quickly became known as ANZACs, and the pride they soon took in that name endures to this day.

During the 1920s, ANZAC Day became established as a national day of commemoration for the 60,000 Australians who died during the First World War. The first year in which all the States observed some form of public holiday together on ANZAC Day was 1927. By the mid-1930s all the rituals we today associate with the day – dawn vigils, marches, memorial services, reunions, sly two-up games – were firmly established as part of ANZAC Day culture.

With the coming of the Second World War, ANZAC Day became a day on which to commemorate the lives of Australians lost in that war as well, and in subsequent years the meaning of the day has been further broadened to include Australians killed in all the military operations in which Australia has been involved.”