Rituals...Festivals...Football?

A few weeks ago I was thinking of the perfect encounter project to do and I just remembered I did it. I was thinking about what kind of ritual, festival or celebration I could encounter, and I realized IU has this big thing called Homecoming. I thought this whole idea was interesting because not only does the university have rituals that fit in to this large festival that encompasses the whole celebration of IU, but students have their own unique rituals as well. There are the obvious parts of Homecoming that seem like rituals or parts of rituals to me. These include the ideas that the whole week is dedicated to Homecoming, which gives a starting point and an ending point like the book discussed, while each event within the week also has a specific time frame during which they occur. Events like the parade involve people wearing uniforms that signify they are a part of the ritual, like people in the band, cheerleaders, etc. I bet that these folk groups also have little rituals within themselves that they perform before the games (especially the Homecoming game). Not to mention this is clearly part of a festival because there is a marching band blasting music through the streets for the public to hear. There is also the pep rally where the coach and maybe captains on the team speak to the crowd to get everyone pumped up for the big game. I think that is like a ritual because someone specific is leading the event, not just any student or staff member, but a leader of the team, or THE leader of the team (the coach). Now, there are other events going on for people to attend if they want to, but the culmination of the week is the Homecoming football game. This is a special game because alumni come back, true fans and “kind of” fans all attend the game and I think people want to win this game more than any other one sometimes. Once again there are rituals within the game (time frame, uniforms, kickoff, certain rules are followed, etc.) but this game is more of a huge celebration to end the week of Homecoming. Now, depending on how well the football team does, the festival week may not end for another couple of days, but it also may end that night. I guess I just think its really strange and cool that there are pieces of folk lore throughout the world and throughout my own life. I never would have thought going to a parade or a football game would involve me in any sort of ritual or festival, but clearly I was wrong. This is my response to the Ritual, Festival and Celebration Encounter Project.