Singing the National Anthem
I remember when we sang the National Anthem on a regular basis. In my school days it was “God Save the King” until February 1952, when King George was the monarch, and soon after his death, it changed to “God Save the Queen”. And in 1974 our government decided to change our relationship with the United Kingdom and have our own anthem.
In those early days, we sang “God Save the Queen” at all major events, and at assemblies at school, and if one went to the movies, we all stood and sang the anthem before the films started.
Anyone that was in Australia during those early years would remember every work of the anthem, but after the changes, it was not as regularly used.
I thought I would remember all the words, but some have dropped out of my memory, due to lack of use, I am sure.
Remembering the Vietnam Veterans
(and forgetting the words)
Some readers recall the Vietnam War, in which Australian troops were involved from 1962 to 1975. I attended a ceremony to recognise those from our local area who lost their lives because of their military service in Vietnam, and of course, we sang Australia’s current national anthem. I was deeply disappointed that I got some of the wording mixed up. Then I tried to recall when I last sang it. Sadly, people don’t use it very often these days, and it surprised and saddened me, that I couldn’t remember the words correctly.
The History of the National Anthem of Australia
There is information about the history of our National Anthem online and you can download a lovely page of both verses of the anthem here.
There’s detailed history on Wikipedia here.
The protocol for the singing of the anthem is here.
Will I Remember the Words?
I will. And I know I can sing along at any time, with the video from YouTube, which is above, and with the words printed of both verses, I can sing with my best voice (not that it is very good) which is all we have to do.
Each time I sing, I will remember the old days when we sang it often, and perhaps were more proud of our country than we are now.
We should sing it more often. It is a lovely song, and I am impressed with the words, and I do know what “girt” means. Do you?