Holiday Connecting to Meaning Of Life

In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares.
While enjoying this game you can be with anyone you want. Most people like to spend their times with either their friends, family, both, or if you don’t have friends you can just enjoy it with people around you if you go to a sports bar. Whether you are at the game or not, you and the people around you are going to be feeling the same or opposite ways depending weather your group is all fans of the same team, or you are in a mixed group with fans of both teams. In either case you will end up with one of two pairs of emotion which are, happy and joyful or sad and pissed off. The happiness and joy would come from your team winning and being the year’s champions of the football world. But on the other hand the sad and pissed off would come from a loss and having that entire season of dram just go down the tubes with a pathetic or last second loss.
I feel that food wise this depends on what kind of person you are. This day is more like a feast day where you would eat and drink as much as you want. Food that is served can range from anything such as chips and dip, cheese, Sliced Italian Sausage, pepperoni, and shrimp cocktail to having what the tailgaters have which is things like burgers, hot dogs, sausage, and steaks. Drinks are simpler because all they range from is from water to hard liquor. Usually the big Super Bowl parties have everything but the choices are usually when you are just watching or listening with a smaller group of people. People usually listen to any type of music that they like but at the special Super Bowl Halftime Show there are performances by top/ popular musicians. The most recent have been The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, Prince, and this year Bruce Springsteen.
But this day also has some contradictory messages o our culture. Usually on any day if you ran out into the street and just yelling people would think that you are crazy but if your team wins it is more accepted to go out on the street and be joyful for your team. Also this holiday even somewhat breaks the law. The way it does is that the U.S drinking age is 21 years old. But on this day parents allow their kids (depending on how old) drink beer because it’s the big game. But this day also reveals some of a person’s meaning in life. These are things such as friendship, passion, family, joy, determination, happiness, and the pursuit to that unknown indescribable feeling of your team achieving victory.