Yesterday on the 26th January, I was invited to join in an „Australia Day Celebration“ in Oberursel (Frankfurt) with other Aussies who live and work in or nearby Frankfurt. It was my first Australia Day-Celebration ever and I didn’t know what to expect or how it would feel. Through Facebook and other websites pictures of partys in down under were posted and you could somehow feel the atmosphere there. But here in Germany, with snow and freezing temperatures outside below 0°-Celsius? Well – there would be no chance of jumping in a pool, a beach or having a BBQ outside.
The celebration was organized via Facebook through the Australian Consulate in Frankfurt, so I was somehow shy, but interested to meet the other people who are coming together. I was very pleased to meet some of the people I have „seen“ online via Facebook and now talking to them in real life and it was a really good decision to meet up with them. I met a lot of interesting people, a lot of them were born in down under, some from other suburbs in Brisbane, nearly everybody knew Ipswich, and some of them even came from Nürnberg to the meeting. It was really nice. First Catherine Carter welcomed everyone and after a short introduction from Nicola Watkinson, Consul General, we sang the national hymn „Advance Australia Fair“ – well, the other ones did sing, I just enjoyed listening.
And then you ate, drank and chatted with all the other ones and could exchange your feelings, expectations and love of Australia, or also talk about politics in down under and here in Germany. I met so many lovely and interesting people that I can’t wait to see them again the next time, it will be a movie night with an australian movie. So all together it was a lovely midday and a great Australia Day Celebration for me. Thank you very much!
And here the explanation of the Australia Day via wikipedia:
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, New South Wales in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of Australia (then known as New Holland).
Quote: Wikipedia
Online on facebook there is the page „Australia Day“ where you could generate and publish your AustraliaDay-Greetings. That was fun and there were some nice pictures and graphics which I shared and saved. Also a lot of my friends and cousins down under were preparing or celebrated that day.
