Why not move Australia Day?
Question by Flavian Hardcastle: Why not move Australia Day?
To me 26 January marks the arrival of the First Fleet of the Colony of New South Wales. I live in South Australia.
Australia didn’t exist as Federation until 1st January 1901.
Thus, I think that would be a more appropriate time to celebrate Australia, but there’s just one problem ……..
There’s already too many public holidays in the early part of the year.
Couldn’t we just pick a random date at the end of the year, say, 11 Novemeber, and pretend it was the date that Australia broke off from the Antarctic? We do that with Christmas, as we don’t really know that the Baby Jesus was born on 25 December.
PS: Do I lack patriotism?
Rebeka the reality is the current generation aren’t the ones who landed on Botany Bay either. So why celebrate 26 Jan?
aussiegirl_aka_shygirl but how is the establishment of the Colony NSW part of my history? I’m not in NSW.
Best answer:
Answer by dav
Yeh everyone is on holidays for the christmass holidays so it would be stupid .. who cares celerbate AUSTRAILA!!
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
lol. thats not really a thing you should worry about. let it come and go kid. =]
Its bloody stupid, the only people who truthly want to change the date is the Aboriginals because they want to control yet another thing in Aus. The reality is the current generation of aboriginals werent the ones who were invaded, and the current generation of aussie’s werent the ones who invaded, we arent the nasty invaders so they need to stop playing the poor injured aboriginal role play and spend their time getting a job.
Why oh why do people always want to change things…mainly do gooders with to much time on their hands. Just let it go who cares..it’s tradition, the spirit of tradition!!! Australia day is the 26th of Jan that’s that! Leave it alone and focus on more important things like feeding the hungry and helping the homeless stopping child slavery..etc…
There are a lot of reasons why we should and shouldnt move australia day
i believe that its the day out country sort of turned into existance. But i understand why some aboriginals dont like it
people argue it should be jan 1 cos thats already a holiday – new years day
but i can see your point and thats the obvious choice if we changed it
and some people want anzac day but thats really all about the sacrifice of diggers
the 11th of november is rememberance day. fyi.
i dont think people would like just choosing a random day
and i also dont think you lack patriotism.
lacking patriotism would be like boycotting australia day
not just not caring about the date
I do not think you lack patriotism!
Picking a random date would be quite fun, but not every single grandmother in the country would be happy.
I actually don’t mind 26th January (Maybe because it is my birthday)
I think you should get someone impartial to answer this one.
I think it should just be left as a historic date instead of some random day…they should just make a random day a public holiday by popular demand
January 26th is Australia Day…it’s part of our history and we should leave it as it is…
I don’t think you lack patriotism, but Australia Day cannot be compared to Christmas…
Santa is make-believe, the First Fleet wasn’t.
I rekon the date should be changed to whenever the White Australia Policy law was changed. I think that is relevant to a much larger section of the population than any other notable occasion.
Choosing a day simply at random and proclaiming it “Australia Day” would be meaningless.
It doesn’t matter what day they choose, someone will complain.
November 11? Do you have any idea what date this represents for the modern world????
The anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet on January 26 1788 was the day that was chosen to establish our national day. This date was established as our national day in 1818 – it is now a tradition that transcends what actually happened on that date.
True, we don’t know when Jesus was actually born but we have no records. We KNOW when the First Fleet landed, so the day doesn’t have to be arbitrary.
Saying that 26th January is relevant only in NSW and pointless for other states is a bit short sighted. You could further drill down and say it’s only relevant to people in Sydney and not other cities in NSW because that’s not the day they were established – pretty ridiculous.
The “inappropriateness” of having January 26th as Australia Day should be put to rest for good and people should stop living in he past and look to the future – Australia Day should be a day we celebrate as a NATION, and that’s all of us.
What happened in the past happened, and yes, some of it was pretty appaling but isn’t it time to just get over it? The world was a very different place then, with different values. No doubt what we do today and accept as totally normal, people in generations to come will look back and judge us. What’s the point of constantly harping about what happened GENERATIONS ago, when none of us were alive to do anything about it? Learn from it, and move on.
What intrigues me is thinking about the alternatives:
In 1788, “white man” (British white man) came to Australia and declared soverignty. Rightly or wrongly, it doesn’t matter now. If it wasn’t the British it would have seen someone else. The world was expanding, colonisation was INEVITABLE.
why pick a random date? yeah, lets just pick a random date for New Years Day, and Easter, yep, lets put the Easter holidays in the middle of July!!
January 1 is already celebrated as New Years Day – so many people would not recognise Australia Day on January 1.
Thats why its on the 26th of January. Back then, The whole ‘country’ was New South Wales, including the area where South Australia is today.
You dont just put things on random dates for the hell of it – then there is no meaning for it.
Ah – you tell someone else that its not apart of your heritage because you are not in New South Wales. But it is apart of your NATIONAL heritage no matter what. The name of the country could be changed to….Hamburger Island…and it would still be apart of your Hamburger Island heritage even though you mainly lived in “Australia”
And how do you consider 2 public holidays within 25 days of each other “too many this early in the year”??
11/11 is already taken
Federation day would be more appropriate than invasion day.
Christmas predates jesus. It was a pagan celebration. Jesus was born ( on adjusted calendas) 23 oct, 0007
Perhaps jan 26 should be NSW day and not Australia day.
There can never be too many public holidays
11 November is Remembrance Day. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, lest we forget.
Does it really matter, if there were a good reason to change it then sure, but not just because the Aboriginals want to whinge, only money will shut them up.
It is history, Australia has and always will be January 26. It is when Australia was first settled by the europeans, not just the state. What makes South Australia so damn special.. nothing. Deal with it.
if your happy to pick a random date
the 26 of jan can be the random date we pretend Australia broke off from the Antarctic
i think that moving it to a random date is a) not memorable and b) it needs to be related to australia. i get that 26th is a stupid date but a random date is no better.
who cares if we get too many holidays. there is always going to be an australia day its just a matter of when.
also i wouldn’t like it to be moved to may. that is a ridiculous concept. im not being prejudice but i don’t think that, that date in may is as important as the 26th.
who really cares let it be a day off work. Man it will be good if everyday was australia day