Happy New Year Royal Insight Forum

[TLLK]

Wising all of our posters and guests a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.  :old: :baby: :stars: :fireworks: :snowflake: :partaay:

[Curryong]

Yes, I also wish everyone a Very Happy New Year, and to you also!  :partaay:

Hopefully a much brighter and less stressful twelve months than this last year has been.  :brightside:

[TLLK]

@Curryong-Hope that all was well for you in Australia as your nation was one of the first to greet 2021.
I read the news regarding the lyric change in "Advance Australia Fair"  to fully honor the people who have lived on the continent for thousands of years.

Follow 7NEWS on Twitter

One word changed, thousand of years of history recognised.

Advance Australia Fair will change from January 1, 2021, and Australians will no longer be referred to as ?young? in the national anthem.

Instead, Aussies will be ?one?

[Curryong]

Yes thank you, we experienced a very nice NYE. We went out with sailing friends (not that we've been doing too much of that in 2021) and had a meal in the city centre of Melbourne, then a drink or two at another friend's home near to the restaurant. A rather warm night, no fireworks though, and people were discouraged from going into Melbourne if they didn't have a reservation at a restaurant.

As for the change to the national anthem most people I know have rolled their eyes at it! It doesn't scan very well for a start, there being a considerable difference between the word 'one' and what it's replacing, 'young', so it's now 'one and free' which doesn't make much sense!

I appreciate why it's been done (and the anthem WAS first composed in the 19th century) but in my opinion maybe the whole verse should have been rewritten by a couple of leading musicians/lyricists, incorporating within it a tribute to the first inhabitants of our land.

In the 1980s the national anthem 'God Save The Queen' was replaced after a referendum was held offering a choice of three. In the interim the wellknown song 'Waltzing Matilda' was used. However, it's about a bushman who steals a sheep, so that's hardly appropriate though everyone was fond of the tune!

I never chose 'Advance Australia Fair' in the referendum anyway, as I consider the lyrics aren't up to scratch. There's another line that goes 'Our home is girt by sea' and Aussies often joke 'Who's Gert?' as in Gertrude! My choice then was 'God Save Australia' but again it was written many years ago and it's lyrics aren't suitable for a modern, multi-cultural nation.

People aren't worried by the change though. We are pretty easy-going about most things. I've got a feeling most people will forget and still sing 'young and free' anyway!

I wonder how the French feel about the Marseilles? Wonderful and inspiring melody, but the lyrics, my goodness!
Double post auto-merged: January 01, 2021, 10:13:25 PM

By the way this is a rendition of our national 'bush' song 'Waltzing Matilda'. I don't know whether you've heard it before but it's especially good when it's sung by huge numbers at concerts.

The song is full of old Australianisms. A jumbuck is a sheep, a billabong is a watering hole, swagmen or swaggies were men who went from sheep station (ranches) to sheep station in the bush, picking up rural work wherever they could, shearing, fence mending etc.

Waltzing Matilda was the act of taking up your swag (or pack, including bedroll and Billy, which was a bush lidded tin for making a cuppa tea) and following bush trails to the next station. It was also known as being 'on the wallaby'.

John Williamson - Waltzing Matilda - YouTube
Double post auto-merged: January 01, 2021, 10:36:37 PM

Squatters were station owners who owned the flocks. Troopers were mounted policemen,  used in the rural parts of Australia. Tucker boxes were what swaggies used to keep food supplies when they were travelling.

My great favourite when I first came here was 'God Bless Australia', an earlier suggestion before the national referendum in 1974 as national anthem. Wouldn't do now as the lyrics are very oldfashioned, but I still like it.

Australian Patriotic Song: God Bless Australia - YouTube

Incidentally, I don't believe our current national anthem was adopted by schools here in Victoria for many years, as my daughters, born in 1974 and 1975, sang 'God Save the Queen' in their early years at primary school.

[Blue Clover]

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2021 is filled with health, joy, and happiness!  :partaay:

[TLLK]

We're ushering in another New Year tonight so I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our members and guests a very peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2022.

   :partaay: :consoling1: :happy17:

[PrincessOfPeace]

Happy New Year everyone!

[wannable]

[Macrobug67]

Happy New Years everyone!

Party big here tonight.  Pizza, gin and tonic, fuzzy jammies, warm cats on my lap and playing cards with my 80 year old parents.  Wahoo!   :bday: