Anzac Day will be commemorated on Friday 25 April.
- All our libraries will be closed on this public holiday
- Read our page on Anzac Day and Gallipoli to find out more about the history of this commemoration
Anzac Day services
Dawn service at Cathedral Square Friday 25 April 6.30am to 8am
This year for the third time since the 2011 Earthquakes, we will be returning to Cathedral Square under the Citizen’s War Memorial.
The commemorations that mark Australia and New Zealand’s Gallipoli campaign will begin at 6.15am when war veterans will gather at the Worcester Bridge and then parade the short distance to Cathedral Square for the traditional dawn service.
The New Zealand Army Band will perform at the service, which will end with the playing of the Last Post, a minute’s silence, and then the singing of the New Zealand national anthem.
For more information visit ccc.govt.nz/dawnservice.
Anzac Day service at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand Friday 25 April 12noon
Come and join us at the Air Force Museum in honouring our airmen at our annual Anzac Day service on Friday 25 April 2025 at 12pm. The service will last around 45 minutes, and tea and coffee will be provided after the service and Contact Café will be open on Anzac Day as usual.
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Other local services
Anzac Day services will also be held around Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. The usual times and locations are:
- Akaroa: War Memorial - 11.30am
- Belfast: War Memorial, Sheldon Park, 8.30am
- Cashmere: 19th Battalion and Armoured Regiment Memorial Victoria Park - 8am
- Central City: Citizens’ Service: Transitional Cathedral, Latimer Square - 10am
- Diamond Harbour: War Memorial Hall - 10.30am
- Heathcote: War Memorial (Martindale-Bridle Path-Flavell) - 6.15am
- Halswell: War Memorial/Domain - 9am
- Harewood: Harewood War Memorial, Harewood Primary School, 721 Harewood Road - 7am
- Little River: Community Centre – 9.30am
- Lyttelton: War Memorial, Albion Square – 10am
- New Brighton: Cenotaph, Marine Parade – 9.30am
- Papanui: Papanui RSA Parking Area – 9.30am
- Sumner: RSA Memorial Gates – 11am
- Templeton: Templeton RSA, Banks St – 11am
- University of Canterbury 10am
Exhibition: Tuakiri Investigates: Diaries and Letters Home (28 March to 25 May 2025)
Diaries and letters that normally hide in our Archives are being highlighted in this interesting exhibition focusing on war correspondence.
Come and see the personal letters, diaries, photos, records and medals of some local soldiers. Read what the war was really like for these local lads and how important it was to keep in touch with family and friends and to record events as they happened
Voices of Gallipoli
In 2023, we hosted a Voices of Gallipoli event at Tūranga. Using a concept created by playwright Arthur Meek, where local actors and current soldiers performed soldiers' accounts of the campaign from Maurice Shadbolt's Voices of Gallipoli collection. Supported by Friends of the Library Ngā Hoahoa o Ngā Kete Wānanga-o-Ōtautahi, this event featured an army bugler and the New Zealand String Quartet. This act of remembrance | maumahara was a moving occasion.
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