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AESTHETICS & RECREATION There is a soccer rivalry between the Celtic and the Rangers clubs in Scotland, which is well known among soccer fans. So, a Celtic fan who is looking to start trouble, runs up to a complete stranger and yells, “To hell with the Rangers!”. The stranger seems puzzled and replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m from Houston.” The Celtic fan is taken aback for a moment and responds, “To hell with the Texas Rangers then!”.1 This joke highlights the importance of sports in various cultures of the world while also emphasizing the differences in sports among various cultures. The Celtic fan looking for trouble, decides to provoke a fan from a rival club. This highlights the importance the …show more content…
Sports can play a critical role in preparing a child for adulthood. A sport can help develop a young child’s problem-solving skills, motor skills and social skills.2 The benefits to children and adolescents engaged in a sport are great and numerous. These benefits and the particular excitement involved in sports often lead to heightened sensations among the participants.
This heightened sensation, the rush of emotions, can often lead to an obsessive dedication or fanaticism to a particular sport, league or team. This fanaticism occurs throughout the world, throughout cultures. The Celtics fan’s provocation attempt is a great example of this behavior in another culture. An American walking into a pub in London, would not want to disrespect the local team because this would be a provocation. Across the world, every culture has a recreational sport that they participate in. The most popular sport around the world is, of course, Soccer. There are an estimated 3.5 billion fans around the world who participate in Soccer. In contrast, American Football has an estimated 400 million fans, while Baseball has an estimated 500 million.3 While this may be surprising to many Americans, the top 5 sports around the world are, in order: Soccer, Cricket, Field Hockey, Tennis and