jl
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- Frances('05, '07), Aragonese ('05), del Norte / Primitivo ('09), Via Tolosana (Toulouse '05), Via Podiensis (Le Puy '07), Via Lemovicensis (Troyes '09), VF ('12), Winter Camino ('13/'14) Cammino d'Assisi ('14) Jakobseweg (Leipzig - Paris '15) San Salvador/Norte ('15) Ignaciano ('16) Invierno ('16)
While out walking this morning I was thinking about the Camino and the sounds I hear when I am walking. I NEVER walk with anything in my ears partly for safety and partly because I want to hear what is going on around me. This means that sometimes you hear (and perhaps see) unexpected things. This morning my thoughts took me back to 2011 when I was walking the VF from London to Rome. I had detoured down the Western Front and timed my journey to be in Villers Bretonneux for the Dawn Service on April 25th. I was caught totally unaware by May 8th - VE Day in Europe. The first inkling I had was the sound of brass bands wafting from the distant villages I passed, and then of course discovering that there was nothing opening, including where I intended to sleep!
My thought processes led me to think about how this route, and others, were likely to be changed over the next few years. We have read much of those possible changes on this forum in the past months, but really we have no idea what they will be, and only time will tell as to what will be done. The Camino is not the only thing that will be different in the months and years to come.
For many Australians and New Zealanders April 25th is a very important day, which begins with a Dawn Service at the local war memorial. It is generally a short sombre ceremony attended by many thousands, young and old, across our two lands, one at which we remember. On my first Camino somehow I was embroiled in a discussion about Anzac Day when someone told me that they did not believe in celebrating war. It is not a celebration, but a commemoration, and to me, this is a day where we reflect on what has been and we MUST remember so that we NEVER forget, and, hopefully, NEVER allow such a thing to happen again. At dawn, on this morning - and I will leave it to you to research as to why it is always at Dawn - people assemble in their towns, whether in heat, in rain, in fog, or in the frost, and pause to listen to the Last Post. Though these services vary from place to place there is a constant unvarying part of this ceremony - as the sun rises the Ode is recited, the Last Post rings out and those assembled stop for two minutes silence until roused by the bugler (or trumpeter) playing the Reveille.
Australia, with a population then of less than 5 million, had nearly 417,000 enlist. Of those nearly 67,000 were killed and a further 150,000 were injured, gassed or imprisoned. New Zealand had a population of just over 1 million with almost 17,000 being killed and 41,000 injured. Our soldiers fought together and were known by the name - ANZACS.
Those figures are high, and even higher throughout the world with somewhere between 15 - 19 million deaths in total during that conflict. That is why we remember and must never forget. It was compounded by the pandemic virus of a 100 years ago, the Spanish flu, in which it has been estimated that there were more deaths than during the total losses of the war itself.
Let me return to my initial comment about how different things are as I want to share with you what will happen for Anzac Day tomorrow. In these days of social distancing people are planning to go to the edge of their driveway with a candle and musicians all round the country will play the Last Post with people marking the 2 minute silence. The intent is to "light up the dawn" and to hear trumpets ringing out all around the towns and suburbs.
In the years ahead the camino will still be there, we pilgrims will adapt, it will be different, we will be different, but like Anzac day tomorrow when many of us will "light up the Dawn" it will still be special. That won't change.
My thought processes led me to think about how this route, and others, were likely to be changed over the next few years. We have read much of those possible changes on this forum in the past months, but really we have no idea what they will be, and only time will tell as to what will be done. The Camino is not the only thing that will be different in the months and years to come.
For many Australians and New Zealanders April 25th is a very important day, which begins with a Dawn Service at the local war memorial. It is generally a short sombre ceremony attended by many thousands, young and old, across our two lands, one at which we remember. On my first Camino somehow I was embroiled in a discussion about Anzac Day when someone told me that they did not believe in celebrating war. It is not a celebration, but a commemoration, and to me, this is a day where we reflect on what has been and we MUST remember so that we NEVER forget, and, hopefully, NEVER allow such a thing to happen again. At dawn, on this morning - and I will leave it to you to research as to why it is always at Dawn - people assemble in their towns, whether in heat, in rain, in fog, or in the frost, and pause to listen to the Last Post. Though these services vary from place to place there is a constant unvarying part of this ceremony - as the sun rises the Ode is recited, the Last Post rings out and those assembled stop for two minutes silence until roused by the bugler (or trumpeter) playing the Reveille.
Australia, with a population then of less than 5 million, had nearly 417,000 enlist. Of those nearly 67,000 were killed and a further 150,000 were injured, gassed or imprisoned. New Zealand had a population of just over 1 million with almost 17,000 being killed and 41,000 injured. Our soldiers fought together and were known by the name - ANZACS.
Those figures are high, and even higher throughout the world with somewhere between 15 - 19 million deaths in total during that conflict. That is why we remember and must never forget. It was compounded by the pandemic virus of a 100 years ago, the Spanish flu, in which it has been estimated that there were more deaths than during the total losses of the war itself.
Let me return to my initial comment about how different things are as I want to share with you what will happen for Anzac Day tomorrow. In these days of social distancing people are planning to go to the edge of their driveway with a candle and musicians all round the country will play the Last Post with people marking the 2 minute silence. The intent is to "light up the dawn" and to hear trumpets ringing out all around the towns and suburbs.
In the years ahead the camino will still be there, we pilgrims will adapt, it will be different, we will be different, but like Anzac day tomorrow when many of us will "light up the Dawn" it will still be special. That won't change.