Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand and is com-memorated by both countries on April 25 every year to honor members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) who fought at Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Dawn services are held with introductions, a hymn, prayer, an address, laying of wreaths, recitation, the playing of "The Last Post", a minute of silence, "Reveille", and the playing of both the national anthems of Australia and New Zealand. Anzac Day parades are also held in each state.
These events are generally followed by a social gathering of veterans and friends, hosted in either a pub or RSL club, often including a traditional gambling game called two-up, which was an extremely popular pastime with ANZAC soldiers. The importance of this tradition is demonstrated by the fact that though most Australian states have laws forbidding gambling outside of designated licensed venues, on Anzac Day it is legal to play "two-ups."
We went to the RSL
club at 7:00 am for breakfast and there were already masses of men and women drinking beer! Two-up started at 7:00 am - 11:00 am and the players were out in force surrounding the circle, where one person (known as the "spinner") takes two coins and places them on a stick and then spins them up into the air. People bet on the coins both coming up either heads or tails. It's that simple. You could hear the shouts of "heads-um-up" or "tails-um-up-spinner," depending on how they were betting. If you wanted to bet $5 on heads, you would take your five dollar bill and wave it on your head, yelling $5.00. The person betting on heads, would hold the money until the coins both came up heads or tails and a winning spin was declared. People were betting $5, $10, $20 and even $50 on one spin! It was absolutely wild and crazy but everyone was having a good time!
club at 7:00 am for breakfast and there were already masses of men and women drinking beer! Two-up started at 7:00 am - 11:00 am and the players were out in force surrounding the circle, where one person (known as the "spinner") takes two coins and places them on a stick and then spins them up into the air. People bet on the coins both coming up either heads or tails. It's that simple. You could hear the shouts of "heads-um-up" or "tails-um-up-spinner," depending on how they were betting. If you wanted to bet $5 on heads, you would take your five dollar bill and wave it on your head, yelling $5.00. The person betting on heads, would hold the money until the coins both came up heads or tails and a winning spin was declared. People were betting $5, $10, $20 and even $50 on one spin! It was absolutely wild and crazy but everyone was having a good time!
One boy of about 10 was with his Grandfather and had $5.00 of his own money and wanted in on the action. His Grandfather did the actual betting for him and the boy won four rolls in a row, a total of $20.00. His Grandfather asked him if he wanted to do another bet and the boy quickly said "no, I'm done"! Smart boy! We also saw a very elderly white haired woman sitting on a chair on the front row with a wad of $5.00 bills clutched in her hand, betting and having a ball.
The funny thing about two-up is that one time when Virginia and I went to Las Vegas, several years ago, they had the game two-up at one of the downtown casinos. They had two guys in the center trying hard to do an Australian accent as the emcees. We had so much fun playing it that day and I never dreamt that I would actually one day be playing it in Australia! Of course, the next time we went back to Vegas, they no longer had the game - don't know why.
