Playin' Hookey for Hockey!

In Massachusetts, they've got Patriots' Day, i.e., you get the day off from school!!! In India, everyone gets or takes the day off to watch a passionate cricket match and in Brazil, people huddle around cafes to watch futbol during the middle of the day. How come we're not as crazy about sports here in North America? Canada's taken the lead here in celebrating "HOCKEY DAY." Although Hockey Day falls on a Saturday (January 13, 2007) this year, Canadians will be glued to their TV's at home or will just be "oooout and aboooout" watching ice hockey. You've probably realized that Patriots' Day in Massachusetts is not actually a celebration in honor of Tom Brady's team, although that's what I whole-heartedly thought it was back when I went to college in Mass. "Traditionally it was observed on April 19, in honor of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War, fought on that date in 1775. Since 1969, however, the holiday has been observed on the third Monday in April, providing a three-day long weekend. The Boston Marathon is run on this day every year. Also, the Boston Red Sox have traditionally played a home game at Fenway on this date every year since 1960, typically starting at 11:00 AM ET. Many schools, elementary through high school, take the entire week off as an 'April vacation.'" Maybe Massachusetts and Canada have it right! (For all intents and purposes, we'll just say that Patriots Day is for football.) Canada already has Boxing Day, though that is not a day on which folks watch back-to-back fights. It's actually a holiday loosely based on giving employees gifts or leftovers following Christmas festivities. Hockey Day in Canada is the closest that hockey comes to getting a holiday named after it. In celebrating the country's unofficial hockey holiday for the 7th year in a row, hockey fans in Canada will celebrate their favorite pass-time by playing and watching the sport all day long. Maybe some day it'll be a true day off from work for 'em, eh? In Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ("CBC") hosts "Hockey Night in Canada," which is kind of like "Monday Night Football" in the United States. So this coming Saturday, on Hockey Day, CBC will have a marathon hockey festival featuring a triple-header of the 6 Canadian teams in head-to-head action: Montreal at Ottawa @ 2:00 p.m. EST; Vancouver at Toronto @ 7:00 p.m. EST; and Edmonton at Calgary @ 10:00 p.m. EST. The kids won't wanna move from their "telies" for fear of missing one ounce of the full day and night broadcasting coverage dedicated to hockey. The broadcast includes live broadcast segments from smaller communities across the country and features panel discussions on issues facing "Canada's game" at both the minor and pro levels. So maybe the "M*ssholes" are on the right track and Patriots' Day should officially be for the New England Pats team. Perhaps slowly, but surely, the U.S. will realize that it's truly useless for anyone to go to work on the Monday following the Super Bowl, or they'll start the season earlier so that Super Bowl Sunday falls on the day before Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. Other than that, we might all have to move North and hope that Hockey Day becomes an official holiday that can be moved to a weekday so we can get the day off!