Commemorating in quarantine.

So it's the night of another Anzac Day. The annual public holiday shared among three nations - Australia, New Zealand and Turkey - once enemies, now friends. Since 1916, it has grown in stature to become all three of those nations' citizens pause together to reflect on and give thanks for the sacrifices their forebears made in war. Its traditions and observances had been, pleasantly, unchanged ever since.

Until this year, of course thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, in 2020, Anzac Day in Australia, at least, has seen the same sentiments shared but markedly different ways. There have been no marches or massively-attended dawn services, no games of Two-Up in pubs, none of that. Just public but solitary performances of The Last Post (including one in my own housing estate, in fact, to my delight), and the regular social media statements and news coverage.

Nonetheless, I am very pleased the day and its remembrances have gone ahead despite the pandemic. I could say why, but nobody needs the sermon or the history lesson. Certainly not anybody from any of the three nations involved. I hate all wars generally and dislike militarism, but we must always remember the sacrifices which were made for our nations, and who made them.

We will remember them.