Episode 003 | Sporting Celebrations in Australia #EnglishwithanAussie
JINGLE:
Hello everybody and welcome. I’m your host Adriana, and you're listening to English with an Aussie, the no. 1 podcast spoken entirely in slow English.
INTRODUCTION:
In today's episode we'll be discussing popular celebrations that you can expect to find in Australia. As I sat down and began planning for this episode, I realised that there were simply too many celebrations to cover in just one episode. So for those of you who love sports, strap yourselves into Part 1 of my mini series where we’ll be discussing The AFL Grand Final, The Australian Open, The Melbourne Cup and of course how we could forget about the MotoGP held in Phillip Island? Well without further adieu let's jump in.
No matter what part of the world you live in, celebrations can be split up into two categories; religious and secular. A religious celebration is a time of special importance marked by followers to that religion. Religious celebrations are commonly honoured on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. As you may have guessed, secular celebrations are not affiliated with a church or faith. Secular celebrations can be customised to embody freedom of expression for every individual. A strange phenomenon that has happened over the years in Australia is that many religious occasions such as Christmas and Easter have become “secularised” - meaning businesses and schools take a day off work whether they chose to celebrate or not. As mentioned in a previous episode, Australia is the home to over half a million migrants every year, so it’s no wonder the list of celebrations and festivals is getting longer and longer.
THE AFL GRAND FINAL:
Alright, let’s kick start this series with 4 sporting events that you cannot miss! Sport is an integral part of life in Australia. In fact, 90% of adults participate in at least 1 sporting event every year. In my opinion, Australia’s temperate climate encourages people to get outdoors and get active. Sport also enables the well-loved national values of “mateship” and “having a go”, whilst also improving mental health and wellbeing. Growing up, sport was simply just a part of our weekly routine. My brother and I participated in swimming lessons from a very young age, we were on almost every school sporting team, and still to this day are heavily involved in our town’s soccer clubs. So what sporting celebrations does Australia have to offer? First off, and probably the most famous of them all, is the Australian Football League Grand Final. For those of you who are not familiar with the sport, AFL or “Aussie Rules” is played on a large oval-shaped field, with the aim of the game to kick the ball through the two tallest goal posts, which are set at either end of the ground. Now, let me give you a piece of advice. Please don’t confuse this sport with rugby or American Football, otherwise you might cop a few nasty swear words. You see Australians are very passionate about the AFL. So, the season of AFL welcomes 18 clubs from all over the country to participate in a 25 round season which also includes a 4 week final series. The grand final is always played on the last Friday of September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Since 2019, Grand Final Day has now become an official day off for the Australian public. That’s right, a whole day off to enjoy the coverage which starts at 12:15pm with the “Grand Final Sprint” - this is a fun competition where one player from all 18 AFL clubs race to see who is the fastest player! At 12:30, the musical performances begin before the teams enter at the MCG at about quarter past 2. Australia’s National Anthem is played and at 2:30 the two captains from each team participate in the famous ‘coin toss’. This will select who will play at which end of the field. After the Grand Final is played, a 5 person panel votes for the “player of the match’ and finally, the medal ceremony commences for both teams. Last year Collingwood Magpies won the Grand Final against the Brisbane Lions by only 4 points.
THE AUSTRALIAN OPEN:
This leads us into our 2nd sporting event “The Australian Open”, or simply put for us Aussies - "The Open". If you are a tennis fan, you might already be familiar with tournaments such Wimbledon, The Davis Cup or The U.S Open. But did you know that there is a tournament played every year in Melbourne? Well now you do. The first Australian Open was held way back in 1905. It was then called the Australasian Championships and has since become one of the biggest sporting events in the Southern Hemisphere. The Aussie Open is held every January at Melbourne Park and is the first tournament of the four Grand Slam Events. The tournament runs for 2 weeks and it features mens and womens singles, mens, womens and mixed doubles, junior championships, wheelchair championships and also a few fun exhibition events. Every year the event gets bigger and bigger, in fact last year the crowd total surpassed the 1 million mark, setting a new record for the event. In my opinion, the best part about the Australian Open is that it's family friendly. It includes a tonne of fun activities to do like facepainting, live stages, music and food stands to enjoy. This year, Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Belaruses Aryna Sabalenka emerged victorious, knocking out some of the fan favourites like Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and even Novak Djokovic. The final of the Australian Open is always held on Melbourne’s Famous blue tennis court. It's called Rod Laver Arena, after a very famous tennis player. Rod Laver Arena features retractable roofs and holds 15,000 spectators. As you can probably imagine, tickets are incredibly expensive and they sell out within a matter of minutes. But if you are lucky to get your hands on one you might be expecting to pay around $2,000. So if you aren’t fortunate enough, like most of us here, there are a range of live screens around Rod Laver and also in Melbourne’s CBD where you can watch the match. Many people set up their picnic rugs with camping chairs, food and drink because well... tennis finals can go for quite a while. Don't believe me? Well get this! This year's final between Sinner and Medvedev began at 7:47pm and it wasnt until the clock struck 1am the following morning that we saw a champion!
THE MELBOURNE CUP:
So maybe football and tennis aren’t your thing….have you ever considered horse racing? The Melbourne Cup is an annual thoroughbred horse race held at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3km race for horses 3 years and older. The Melbourne Cup has cemented itself into Australian culture, having been run every single year since 1861, except for an intermission during World War 1 and World War 2. Even if you are not into betting, most people take this day as an opportunity to place a bet on their favourite horse, many of which have some really funny names. For a bit of fun, many schools and sporting clubs have something called a Lucky Dip - where each child puts their hand into a hat and chooses the name of a horse at random, and they hope that he or she will win The Melbourne Cup. So, the event starts at exactly 3pm on the first Tuesday of November and is locally known as “The Race That Stops the Nation”, as that is exactly what it does. I have many memories of being at school or maybe in the supermarket and then all of a sudden everything would go quiet, with an announcement over the loudspeaker, “Ladies and gentleman, please take your seats, The Melbourne Cup will begin in 1 minute”. And wherever there was a TV or a screen or a phone you could find everybody huddled over with what they believed was the “winning ticket” in their hand. Australia’s most famous horse, a legend of history, was called Phar Lap. Phar Lap was chestnut-coloured gelding who won the Melbourne Cup in the year 1930 and jsut to top it off - every race leading up to it. So you could say that they were pretty special. To this day Phar Lap is an Australian icon and can be found in the National Museum in Melbourne. But theres one other thing that sets the Melbourne Cup apart from all of the other events in Australia, is the fashions on the field. Yes, you heard me, fashion. As from 1962, which marked the Melbourne Cup’s 100th anniversary, a competition was made for women, men and children to participate in a “Fashions on the Field” pageant. It was so popular, that it has continued until this very day, and every year the fashions as you can imagine, have become increasingly more colourful, detailed and a little different. One item that must be included in every outfit is something called a “fascinator”. A fascinator is a type of headwear worn as an alternative to a hat. So if you get a chance I encourage you to do a little research and see the Fashions on the Field for yourself!
MOTO GP:
Finalising the list, is my husbands all time favourite sporting event - The Moto GP, formally known as the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. The Moto GP is held over 3 days during October at the scenic Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit where you can find south east of Melbourne. After the Second World War, the International Motorcycle Federation created a different competition for road racing. You see, originally, the race was held in many different locations such as Eastern Creek in Sydney and Bathurst in New South Wales. However, it wasn't until 1997, when Phillip Island won the rights to host the race annually. But what makes Phillip Islands track most notable is its beautiful ocean views, elevation changes and sweeping curves. It has earned its reputation as being one of the toughest but most beautiful circuits in the competition. Besides the circuit, there are tonnes of things that you can do over the 3 days at Phillip Island. There's a collection of 24 antique motorcycles. These bikes have a close connection with Phillip Island. You can expect to find the bikes of riders such as Max Biaggi from Italy Eddie Lawson from America. Before the main race begins at 2pm on Sunday, there's an air show that features the Australian Air Forces hornet jet performing terrifying aeronautics that entertain spectators from all over the world. Finally, at 2, the riders line up and wait for those famous red lights to go out. And 'they're off'! The race begins! When it's finished thousands of people jump over the gates and enter the track with hopes of finding a piece of shrapnel or riding gear to add to their collection. The top 3 riders then take to the podium where they spray each other (and the crowd if you're not too carefuly) with champagne to celebrate their exhilarating victories. But if you're not on the circuit you can expect to find the coverage of the Phillip Island MotoGP live on free to air, Sky Sport and Kayo Sports.
REFLECTIONS:
Well if you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for sticking around. But unfortunately it’s time to say our goodbyes. Just to remind you, today's lesson was all about Australia's most famous sporting festivals. We first spoke about the difference between religious and secular celebrations. Then we kickstarted our list with the AFL Grand Final which has now become a public holiday in Australia. We spoke about the Australian Open and the Melbourne Cup, and finally to close the episode we embraced the notorious Moto GP held at the Phillip Island race circuit. Hopefully you have found some new events that you might like to add to your Bucket List. Next episode, I will be discussing Australia's celebrations that promote cultural exchange and understanding. If you would like the entire transcript of this episode for FREE please send me an email at TeacherAdriana1992@gmail.com. Once again, thank you everybody. You've been listening to English with an Aussie.
VOCABULARY:
- secular : not connected with religious or spiritual matters
- affiliated : officially attached or connected to an organisation
- temperate climate : moderate temperatures of countries that lie between the subtropics and polar circles (not extreme, not burning hot, nor freezing cold).
- mateship : means to be a friend. Behaving in a way that is equal and loyal.
- coverage : the activity of reporting about an event or subject in newspapers, television or social media.
- Southern Hemisphere : the half of the Earth south of the equator. Countries that lie in this area are Antarctica, Australia and some parts of South America, Africa and Asia.
- exhibition events : an organised presentation or display of something for the public.
- emerged : to move out of or away from something and become visible.
- retractable : something that can be pulled back or inwards.
- intermission : a short break between something such as a film, concert, or event.
- gelding : a castrated male horse. This is done to improve behaviour and make him easier to control.
- shrapnel : fragments of an object thrown out by an explosion or accident.
