In recent years the Anzac Day ceremonies at Hellfire Pass, held at dawn, have attracted increasing numbers of ‘pilgrims’. In 2012 an estimated 1100 people gathered around the commemorative memorial installed by the Australian government in 2005. Urged by the Australian officials they passed around bottles of water ‘in the Anzac spirit’.
After the ceremony visitors share a ‘gun breakfast’ of tea, coffee and Anzac biscuits at the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum above the cutting before travelling to Kanchanaburi War Cemetery for the 10 a.m. service. In recent years this has been moved from the traditional time slot of 11 a.m. because of the oppressive heat of Thailand in April. Here the rituals are more multicultural. Anzac Day, though a ceremony for Australians and New Zealanders, is being invested with meaning by other national groups that worked on the Thai–Burma railway. Thai authorities and defence personnel also lay many wreaths while young Thais play in the bagpipe band.