Happy Australia Day to everyone who has decided to check out the blog on 26 January – Australia Day. For those of you in Australia I hope you enjoy the public holiday which is nicely breaking up a week this year as it falls on “hump day” (also known as Wednesday). For Aussies overseas, make sure you take the time to celebrate your roots, and for everyone else, join us for a day of celebration anyway as we no longer mind if others join us in the celebration. Apparently in the early years of “Australia Day” (or foundation day as it was then known in NSW), it was strictly an Aussie-born only event, but nowadays its open for all and many people also choose to become Australian citizens on this day.

What do we do on Australia Day? Well everyone does it a little differently, but the general stereotypical image of Australia day is sunshine (followed by a tan or more likely sunburn), a BBQ spewing plenty of smoke cooking some lamb and the occasionally charcoaled sausage, a few too many beers followed by a hit of cricket on a beach concluding with a local fireworks display. Of course that’s the stereotypical Australia Day image, but more or less it’s something that most of us would probably have done more than a few times during a lifetime on Australia day.

In addition to the celebrations on the actual day, each year my work puts on an Australia Day celebration morning tea a few days before where people are awarded certificates and plaques for long service and Australia Day awards for outstanding achievements or service. During the service this year I got thinking about why we celebrate Australia day, when we celebrate, and how the whole concept came about. I think it was one of those philosophical moments of “why are we here, what’s the purpose” that I occasionally have. After a brief search using my old friend Google, I managed to gain a little insight into the day’s origin which I’ll naturally be sharing.

The first celebration held on January 26 in Australia was in 1818 marking the 30th year since the English landed the first fleet at Sydney Cove, complete with a 30 cannon salute. Twenty years later the 50th year was celebrated and the first public holiday in Australia was declared on 26 Jan 1838. After federation in 1901, each state celebrated Australia on different days such as South Australia on 28 December and Western Australia on 1 June. It was not until 1935 that all agreed to celebrate on the 26 January, however they agreed to make a public holiday still fall on the closest Monday to preserve the long weekend from 1946 (Something that isn’t such a bad idea I think). Surprisingly it wasn’t until 1994 (only 17 years ago – ok now I’m feeling old that 17years is an “only”) that all states agreed to hold the public holiday and celebrations on the same day, 26 January.

There has also been a fair bit of debate on the significance of January 26 on indigenous Australians over the years, which has also been described as Invasion day. There have been many suggestions to move the day to other days to make the day more inclusive; however each has been blocked by a variety of reasons including alternatives already being a public holiday and not wanting to loose another one, bias towards Victoria (even though the current day is heavily bias towards Sydney) and suggested dates falling during winter, which would prevent the stereotypical celebrations in parts of the country due to the cooler weather.

Whatever the date, the idea of Australia day for me is to just do what Australian’s do best, relax. So whatever the day is for you, be it Australia Day here in Australia, Republic day in India, International Customs Day for all Customs organisations globally, or if you’re Ellen Degeneres, your birthday, sit back and relax for all Australians and enjoy the day. If you feel the need, feel free to post a comment on how you spend Australia, and what the day means for you in the comments section beneath this article. Otherwise, relax and enjoy the day.

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