Today, October 3, is German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), marking the formal reunification of Germany in 1990. What, you may be wondering, does that have to do with New Zealand?
Well, apart from the fact that there are people of German decent living in New Zealand (including me, if you go back enough generations), not all that much.
However, Transit New Zealand, which overseas the Auckland Harbour Bridge, routinely replaces one of the two New Zealand flags flying on the bridge to honour the national day of other countries.
Today it was Germany’s turn, but there are many others. For example, on July 1 they flew the Canadian flag and on July 4, the American Flag. I’ve always thought this was a nice touch, a friendly gesture. If more countries took the time to learn about and pay attention to other countries, it seems to me the world would be a much nicer place.
I didn’t take a picture of the bridge flags today, because, hey—I didn’t know today was German Unity Day, either (so apparently I need to learn more about other countries, too). But to illustrate what bridge flag business is like, here’s a photo I prepared earlier—a rainy, gloomy July 4, 2006, to be exact:
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