'Roaring chorus' to mark peace in NZ

New Zealanders will break their silence of remembrance for the centenary of the end of World War One with a wave of collective noise.

Performers involved in He Wawā Waraki: Roaring Chorus 2018.

Performers involved in He Wawā Waraki: Roaring Chorus 2018. Source: Facebook/Footnote New Zealand Dance

Solemn silence will give way to raucous joy as New Zealand marks the centenary of the end of the First World War.

Like counterparts around the world, Kiwis will commemorate with two minutes of silence, at 11am (NZDT) on Sunday, a century since peace on the Western Front.

But a campaign calling for a "roaring chorus" to end the quiet and replicate celebrations when the war finished has spread around the country, with a flurry of boisterous events planned for the big moment.
The phrase is taken from an article in the Wellington newspaper The Evening Post, which described "songs and cheers, miscellaneous pipings and blastings, and tootings and rattlings - a roaring chorus of gladsome sounds" when news of peace arrived in New Zealand.

Nurse Isobel Haresnape was among those celebrating in Auckland and, in 1968, recalled running into the street to join bands using makeshift instruments.

"I woke next morning to a tremendous noise of sirens, bells ringing and voices and feet running and everyone wanting to know what it was all about, and I was one of them. And I heard someone say 'It's peace'," she says in a recording held by national archive Nga Taonga Sound and Vision.

"People were very hysterically excited really, people who didn't know each other, strangers kissed strangers, went drinking with them in hotels ... danced with them, everyone was dancing."

On the Western Front, soldiers danced and celebrated too.

"I've never done so much dancing in me life," veteran George Puhi Nicholas recalled in 1985.

So two minutes after 11am on Sunday, chimes in Wellington will kick off cheers around the country.

Tens of thousands are expected to set off whatever horns and noise-makers they can bring along to commemoration events, while church bells throughout the nation will ring for 45 minutes.

Fire trucks and police will sound their sirens, ships will sound their horns and even the country's trains will take part.

"After four years of remembrance, we can now reconnect with the sense of joy and relief that swept the county when news of the end of fighting came through," the director of the country's official centenary programme, Sarah Davies, says.

Nearly 100,000 New Zealanders served overseas during the war (from a population of about 1.1 million) and 18,000 were killed.


Share
3 min read

Published

Updated



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world