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Empire Day

Empire Day was observed in state schools from 1905 with a program of addresses, pageants and patriotic songs, with children swearing allegiance to King and Empire with a loyal declaration. Also known as Flag Day, Empire Day saw the city decorated with flags on principal buildings and cable trams. The Empire Day Movement issued badges and Union Jack cards, with flags and buttons sold to raise money for the Lord Mayor's Fund, Red Cross and Queen Victoria Hospital. During Empire Shopping Week, shoppers were encouraged to buy Australian-made products or goods of Empire origin. Commemorative meetings, dinners and speeches were hosted across city and suburbs by the English Speaking Union, the Australian Women's National League, the Royal Empire Society and the Royal Colonial Institute. Local patriotic societies hosted suburban street carnivals, and in the 1930s a torchlight procession through the decorated streets of Surrey Hills and Balwyn climaxed at an annual Empire Day bonfire and fireworks hosted by the Advance Balwyn League. Empire Day was primarily a Protestant celebration, often the subject of sectarian debate and opposed by a Catholic hierarchy whose annual festival equivalent was St Patrick's Day. Opponents of the movement occasionally interrupted commemorative activities: in 1929 communists were accused of throwing stink bombs during an Empire rally at the Royal Exhibition Building. Originally celebrated on 24 May (Queen Victoria's birthday), popular observance declined in the postwar period. Renamed (British) Commonwealth Day in the 1950s, and moved in 1966 to 11 June (Queen Elizabeth II's birthday), it was more commonly known as Cracker Night and celebrated by bonfires and the lighting of fireworks until stricter government regulation reduced their availability.

Andrew May