jo172 wrote:Psyber wrote:My understanding is that Australia Day celebrates the formation of the one country when all the states agreed to form the national federation. .
... That would be the first of January
Agree with what's further above, just make it the first monday in February and be done with it.
It's like gay marriage in that the winds of progress are so self-evidently pushing in a direction that it will be changed eventually, putting a stick in the ground about something no one is really that attached to just to delay what's going to happen a little bit further is a waste of energy, and evidently hurtful to at least some of your fellow Australians.
I'd never paid it much attention really...
I'd sort of assumed the day was chosen to celebrate the federation because NY Day was already set up.
I looked it up just now and I see it was celebrating the arrival in NSW.
Probably a good reason to scrap it and set up a Federation Day and Mabo Day as others have suggested.
But I guess I'm barely Australian as my father was born here very soon after his folk arrived from Cornwall, and my mother grew up in Sheffield - well outside Sheffield in the Bole Hills as it was before Sheffield grew.