Over dinner one evening, my partner and I were watching a hockey game when the national anthems had just finished and I posed the question, "I wonder why the national anthem is sung at professional sporting events." Although we had guesses, we didn't know for sure so we looked it up.
Upon reading a New York Times article from December 2023, this is what I found:
"The first documented case of an anthem being played prior to a sporting event dates all the way back to May of 1862, when “The Star Spangled Banner” was played prior to a baseball game in Brooklyn, N.Y. The practice then occurred sporadically over the next several decades, with the national anthem being played prior to significant sporting events such as the World Series. Playing the anthem then gained traction during the Second World War. As North American professional sports leagues carried on playing during the conflict overseas, teams started playing the national anthem as a symbol of wartime support and patriotism."
Continuing on with that article, the playing of the national anthem before professional sporting events is a "uniquely North American phenomenon. In Europe, national anthems are reserved for major international competitions, or when an urgent or important national situation arises."
So if the national anthems being sung before professional sporting events began during WWI and WWII as a way to show patriotism, what purpose does it serve now? Is it time to do away with this tradition? Especially when you consider how many non-North Americans play in the MLB, the NFL, and the NHL?
I decided to post the question on Facebook and the answers I got in return were varied but certainly emotional. There is a heartfelt need to defend the importance of the national anthem but the reasoning of it being at the front of a sports game falls into the typical "because it's always been this way." This is a sentence that is the bane of anyone who is working towards change. The grip on to tradition without understanding where that tradition came from is not a reason to keep things the same. A term I learned about recently is "temporal disorientation" which means something along the lines of "we've always done it this way before" but then not knowing for sure if there was a "before" or the reasons why "the thing" is being done.
On the flip side, there is something to be said about ritual and the community that is found within ritual practices. There is a reason church services look similar, having the same parts, more or less in the same order. Ritual practices are important as it forms a way of connecting with God and with each other.
Now I'm not saying that singing the national anthem before a hockey game will bring you closer to God, but it can certainly bring you closer to the person beside you as you sing in unity the song that represents your country.
I'm still not sold that the anthems need to be played at professional sporting events and that it should be kept more for international levels where athletes are actually representing their countries. However, I do understand the need and desire for ritual and the importance behind it. When it comes to the national anthem being sung before a sports game, we've forgotten why it started and have lost the meaning behind it. The audience often boos the opposing anthem and some singers aren't even taking the time to learn the words or the music.
So if we, the general public "we", still find singing the national anthem to be an important ritual to professional sporting events, then let's at least care about what we are singing and why. Even if that means yelling "True North" for us Manitobans and voicing our opinion of the truth behind the freedom in this country. Because even those parts have become ritualistic but at least we know why we're doing it.
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