Serious Fan Rituals

I love to people watch and watching people at a sporting events is as much fun as the game its self. Fan’s take their participation in the game seriously.  Pinterest is full of pages of costumes, and face painting ideas to help fans feel more connected to the game.

This is a picture from fox.msn.sports for this week. The photo was taken by Photo: Wesley Hitt / Getty Images North America.

So why do fan dress up and support their team in eye catching ways?  Fan Rituals are defined as actions or behaviors preformed to serve a symbolic purpose. This give fans a personalized experience at the game, supporting their favorite team. Fans often believe by following rituals they are helping their team win the game.

Sports are full of rituals that require fan participation. By participating in rituals we are doing something physically to be involved in the game, even though we are not playing the game personally. This is one of the reasons I enjoy sports with my family.

The University of Utah has several traditions that as a family we follow and fully believe they help the football team win the game. We participate in the Third Down Jump, and the First Down Chant. We took J to his first football game when he was four. We wore matching shirts and took the train full of other Ute Fans to the game. These rituals were so powerful J sang the words to the fight song he learned at the game in his sleep. He also did the First Down Chant running around the house the next week. We now make U’s with our hands when they are close to earning a touchdown or kicking a field goal.

When we attend the Royals football games we remain standing until the Royals earn a first down at the beginning of each quarter. Because we have so much fun making U’s with our hands at Ute games, we as a family make the sign language R with our fingers when Roy High is close to making a touchdown.

By participating in rituals fans are preforming an action to help their team win.