Why have a "national" day?

I am wondering what all my friends in Upover and Elsewhere will make of this. It seems Downunder should not be "celebrating" its national holiday on 26 January.  

We are being told it is a "day of mourning" for some. We are being told we need to recognise the "genocide" which occurred following white settlement. We are also being told we need to recognise how badly off the "blacks" in Downunder still are. Now they add how racist we are because we failed to vote special racial recognition into the Constitution.

Citizenship ceremonies are no longer held in many places on that day.  Our local council won't be holding one because the current Mayor believes it is inappropriate to hold one on such a divisive day. Two of the three supermarkets are refusing to sell any of the flags, cups, plates, cards, silly hats, t-shirts and other merchandise associated with the day "because it means different things to different people". The decision not to do this has been praised by a few who believe it will win them political kudos but has left most people puzzled. 

You see these are the same supermarkets who now have hot-cross buns for sale without apparently caring that Easter might upset those who find Christianity offensive. They expect us to "celebrate" Halloween too. There is plenty of cheap throw-away merchandise available for those things - but not for our national day. No, it might offend a tiny minority who say they find it racist and offensive and a cause to mourn.

Late yesterday I was reading some material sent to me by a colleague interstate. She was asking me what I thought of an "Aunty" who claims to be indigenous and was trying to lay claim to a location which is currently under the control of others. I looked the "Aunty" up. She has a string of offences for trespass and other matters. She makes her living by claiming to be a member of a tribe once located in that area. I say "claim" because her appearance suggests that her ancestors were European and that any indigenous heritage is barely there.  Naturally she finds our national day "offensive".

I wonder what makes people come to this point. Why do they find such things so offensive? If the three very dark skinned "indigenous" women who came to afternoon tea not so long ago don't find it offensive why do those with much less heritage find it offensive? What are they hoping to achieve?

I won't be flying any flags or going to any barbecues or indeed doing anything else. I never have and almost certainly never will. It is not the sort of thing I enjoy at any time. I think our national anthem sounds like a dirge. It raises no passion in me. I do not feel any particular "pride" or otherwise and I most certainly do not wish to boast about it. 

But, other people feel differently. If we have a national day  and they wish to celebrate it then they should be free to do so. It is not up to the local supermarket to tell them they cannot  celebrate their national day any more than the local supermarket can tell us we must buy Halloween masks or hot cross buns.