2016 date February 7 | 2017 date February 5 | |
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Observed by United States, Canada, and internationally Date First Sunday in February 2018 date February 4 (2018-02-04) 2019 date February 3 (2019-02-03) | ||
Super Bowl Sunday is the day on which the Super Bowl, the annual championship for the National Football League, is played. It is usually on the last Sunday in January or the first Sunday in February and is sometimes referred to as an unofficial national holiday. The 51st annual event, Super Bowl LI, occurred on February 5, 2017. Festivities for Super Bowl Sunday typically involve groups of people gathering to watch the game. Both "Super Bowl Sunday" and "Super Sunday" are registered trademarks of the National Football League.
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Festivities
Although not an official holiday, Super Bowl Sunday is an occasion when many families and friends gather together to watch the game, including those who are not normally football fans. Although sports bars have historically been busy on Super Bowl Sunday in the past, it is becoming more common for people to watch the game from home. This is due in part to the increasing size of home televisions in the United States as well as the attempts of budget conscious consumers to save money.
Because watching the Super Bowl is so popular, stores are often empty during the game, particularly in the regions represented by the two teams playing in the Super Bowl, and water usage drops, with significant rises in use during halftime and after the game, as fans use the bathroom. Additionally, churches sometimes cancel afternoon or evening services on Super Bowl Sunday, hold football-themed charity drives, or deliver sermons designed to appeal to male members of the congregation.
NFL executives have called for a three-day weekend in order to allow fans to celebrate the event, and there is thought to be a loss of productivity in the American work force on Monday after the event. The television network carrying the game (either CBS, Fox, or NBC) will usually devote the entire day's programming schedule to the game, with extended pregame shows, NFL Films retrospectives of the previous season, and special versions of the Sunday morning talk shows in the morning and afternoon hours leading into the game. Competing networks, due to the severe loss of viewers to the Super Bowl festivities, generally resort to low-cost counterprogramming measures such as marathons, reruns, infomercials, and novelty shows like the Puppy Bowl.
Food
Large amounts of food and alcohol are consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. The event is the second-largest day of food consumption in the United States after Thanksgiving, and some police departments have noticed a dramatic increase in drunk driving on Super Bowl Sunday.
Super Bowl Sunday food is usually served buffet style, rather than as a sit-down meal. Foods traditionally eaten on Super Bowl Sunday include buffalo wings, chili, baby back ribs, dipping sauces, pizza, and potato chips. Many pizza delivery businesses see their order numbers double as roughly 60 percent of the take out ordered on Super Bowl Sunday is pizza. Roughly 28,000,000 pounds (13,000,000 kg) of chips, 1.25 billion chicken wings, and 8,000,000 pounds (3,600,000 kg) of guacamole are consumed during the Super Bowl.