Eileen Taing
Super Bowl — those two words mean a variety of things to different people. For non-football fans, the Super Bowl might be a dreaded event they have to hear about incessantly. However, for football fans, the Super Bowl is a highly anticipated national holiday, a time where friends and family can gather together, united by their love of football.
The Super Bowl is promoted heavily by grocery stores and the media. Grocery stores such as Albertsons and Ralphs have huge deals on food and drink items a week or two in advance of the Super Bowl. News on television and across social media talk about the Super Bowl weeks in advance.
From what I have seen back at my home town in Orange County, many people take celebrating the Super Bowl very seriously. Most have parties of some sort, such as hosting barbecues, filled with fellow football fans. Often I would be able to hear my neighbors cheering or yelling based on what action just happened regarding a particular team. They seem to always put everything else aside on the day of the Super Bowl so they can solely focus on football.
I, too, am a huge football fan. Before transferring to UCSB, my parents and I would have friends and family over for every Super Bowl. Everyone else besides me would cheer or yell during a touchdown or when a pass got intercepted. I would be even crazier, commenting through the entire game and shouting when my team failed to score. I look forward to the NFL season every year for the excitement it brings.
Some non-football fans don’t see anything special about the special day that is the Super Bowl. They treat this day like any other day of the year. Alina Ananeva is a current UCSB student who represents this viewpoint. “It’s just an ordinary day,” she said. “I see it as a way to get together with friends, but that’s it. It has never been apart of my culture.”
She also described the bar where she was watching the Super Bowl. Much of the audience was quite calm and collected, remaining still instead of cheering or jumping up and down. The main appeal of the game was placing bets.
Another UCSB student, Lindsey Erstad, shared her opinion on whether the Super Bowl was a national holiday. “I don’t think so cause it’s just a sport, but Americans are crazy so it’s possible at one point it was,” she said. “But I honestly don’t think so.”
Even though there are some people in the world who are not huge football fans and do not see the Super Bowl as a national holiday, they are wrong. The Super Bowl is a national holiday because it is the biggest event for many people after New Year’s Eve. Many Americans, including me, do not make plans for that day because we all will be entirely focused on football. Thousands of football fans fly across the country to see their team play live at the Super Bowl stadium. Fans who do not buy tickets to see the game live often travel to their family or friend’s houses to watch the game together.
The Super Bowl is an event for friends and family to spend quality time together. It is the only national holiday between New Years and the Fourth of July where people can enjoy each other’s company while watching the biggest American sports game of the year.