First Post – Memorial Day Weekend

In less than two months Liz and I will head to LAX and from there depart for Auckland.  We’re both very excited to get underway, but we’re both having a lot of fun hanging out with friends here in Indiana in the time we have left. 

Speaking of which…….this weekend is Memorial Day weekend, and here in Indianapolis that holds special significance since we also host the Indianapolis 500 each year at this time.  For us, it has turned into a reunion weekend with friends coming from all parts of the country to reunite, grill, drink abnormally large amounts beer, and watch a car race.  The Indy 500 is the largest signal day sporting event in the world and over 200,000 people will crowd into the relatively small town of Speedway, west of downtown Indianapolis for the festivities.  This will be our fifth year of gathering, and I genuinely hope that, even though I may not be living in Indianapolis at this time next year, our buddies will continue the party. 

 

New Zealand’s version of Memorial Day, ANZAC Day, was on April 25th.  ANZAC stands for “Australian and New Zealand Army Corps” and the date marks the anniversary of the first conflict these soldiers saw in WWI.  Looking into ANZAC day, I realized that I don’t even know the origins of Memorial Day.  Compliments of Wikipedia, Memorial Day has always been celebrated on the last Monday of May and was originally to commemorate the Union soldiers killed in the Civil War.  After WWI, Memorial Day was expanded to memorialize all soldiers. 

 

New Zealanders celebrate ANZAC Day in a similar way to Americans.  There are a number of services that speak to the meaning of the day, there are parties to celebrate the holiday, and there are sports.  We have race cars, they play rugby.  For the past 10 years a rugby test match has been played between the Australia and New Zealand national teams.  Not sure if it can match 33 open-wheeled roadsters buzzing on ethanol, but maybe next year we’ll find out.