Hi Howard,
Yes we do, its called Australia Day and occurs on January 26th. It is not an independence celebration like July 4th, as we are still part of the Commonwealth and HRH Elizabeth is the Queen of Australia. There is a lot of debate in OZ about when we should declare ourselves a republic if ever, but that debate could start a whole new thread
Australia Day is more I think like your Thanksgiving where we celebrate being Australian and living in the best country in the world. It is a day where we all get around the BBQ and watch our cricket team kick the English arse, and drink copious amounts of beer, rum and whatever tipple takes your fancy.
It is a day where we celebrate all things Australian, prawns (shrimp) Crocodile Dundee, Nicole and Keith, Melba, Hills hoists, thongs (you wear them on your feet not up your arse) blue dogs and footy. We talk a lot about how we as a small nation of about 17 million can kick the shit out of the the rest of the world in just about any sport you can imagine.
We took the Americas Cup (yachting) away from the yanks who had held it for umpteen million years. And a few years later jailed the bloke who financed it, Alan Bond who stopped being "Bondy the Ozzie Icon" to become "Alan the Pommie crook'.
Of course the Kiwi's then manipulated the rules and bought in Multihulls and screwed up the entire competition and the still have the gall to whinge about underarm bowling.
We beat the Poms at Cricket, the All Blacks at Rugby, the world at swimming , Aerial Skiing, Polo Cross and Eventing. frightened the shit out of Brazil and Italy in World cup soccer (a game that hardly anyone plays in Oz, watch out when we decide to get serious.)
In F1 we have had Brabham, Jones, and now Webber. MotoGp Mick, Gardner,
and now Stoner, currently in the top ten in his first year.
Even our sheilas won gold in water polo at the Olympics.
In Golf Greg Norman, Carrie Webb, Aaron Baddeley to name a few, and Geoff Ogilvy won the U.S.Open last Month.
We have the most beautiful women, last years Miss World, Kylie, the world's cutest arse.
Ok. Ok. so now I'm being boring, but yes Howard we do have an Australia Day.