Australia sets to celebrate its national day on Jan 26

get-togethers, picnics and barbecues, sunbathing at the beach and flocking to outdoor concerts with many patriotic revelers bedecked with removable tattoos bearing the national flag. The biggest city, Sydney, has a packed schedule of crowd-pleasing events around the harbor beginning with a Morning Ceremony complete with Aboriginal artwork projected onto the “sails” of the Sydney Opera House. Other highlights around the harbor will include an Air Force aerial display, a race featuring 19th-century sailing ships, a boat regatta, a concert and fireworks in the evening. Meanwhile, one of the nation’s biggest Australia Day events, Skyworks, will be staged on the foreshores of the Swan River in Perth, the capital of Western Australia (WA). WA has had the nation’s toughest border control measures throughout the pandemic and its tight restrictions led to last year’s Skyworks being shelved, and there were concerns the same would happen in 2022. The WA government, however, confirmed earlier this w

eek that the huge fireworks display, which usually attracts tens of thousands of onlookers, would go ahead. “We have to be safe and we have to be smart,” Perth Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas told local newspaper The West Australian. “Everyone must wear a mask, but we can’t live in fear.” “Australia Day is a day worth celebrating, so the City of Perth’s position right now, is it’s on with the show,” he said.