First Day of Spring in Oz ... and Wattle Day?

In the land Down-under everything is upside-down and wrong way round it seems and today being the 1st of September it is the first day of spring in the southern hemisphere of the globe and in Australia it is also 'Wattle Day' according to my calendar hanging on my kitchen wall.

I had never heard of 'Wattle Day' until today, when I flipped my calendar over from August to September and found it printed across the September 1st square.

 I had to Google what this day was all about, and it turns out - 
1 September - Wattle Day
"Wattle and Wattle Day can symbolise virtually anything we want, but they relate generally to Spring, being Australian, the Australian environment, and history. 
Spring has many positive values such as optimism, bounty and abundance, reliability, colour, and so on.
We can celebrate our ‘Australianness’ on Wattle Day in quite a different way from Anzac Day, which in recalling past wars glorifies Australian qualities of courage and mateship. 
Wattle day, by contrast, looks forward (to Spring) and can celebrate the nation’s undoubted qualities of good humour, fairness, generosity, informality and democracy."

The new Australian 'Wattle Flag'?
Wattle we do with the old flag?-)

I like the idea of a National Wattle Day in this part of the world, as Spring tends to be celebrated down here with a whimper instead of a bang, plus it's a good excuse to throw on the sporting colours of the country (green and gold) and have another BBQ and a beer.

There is even a new five dollar note floating around as of today and it has wattles on it, too.

Five dollar banknote rollout starts today

So, cheers and here's to spring and National Wattle Day.

I'll be ready for it next year now:-)