It's a cliché that Canadians worship hockey.
Now two academics have produced a scholarly paper that concludes Canada's national sport is, in fact, a religion, complete with symbols and sacraments, a pantheon of gods and a sense of reverence.
Ruth Tekel and Matthew Robillard presented their paper, Hoisting Ken Dryden's Sweater to the Rafters; An Analysis of Hockey as a Canadian Post-Modern Religion , yesterday at Ottawa's Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, a gathering of 8,000 academics.
Watching a hockey game elevates people from their every day temporal world to a higher plane, and gives them a sense awe and of belonging to a larger community, said Prof. Tekel, an assistant professor in religious studies at St. Francis Xavier University.
Prof. Tekel and Dr. Robillard analyzed the ceremonial hoisting of former Montreal Canadiens goalkeeper Ken Dryden's No. 29 jersey to the rafters of Montreal's Bell Centre.
“The sweater, once used for mundane purposes, became invested with a sacred reverence,” Prof. Tekel said. “And Ken Dryden became more than a hockey player and politician; he became a greater hero.”
During the Jan. 29, 2007, ceremony, solemn music was played and a phalanx of hockey greats walked down a red carpet in procession. As a cable lifted the No. 29 jersey, more than 18,000 fans maintained a respectful silence, and all eyes turned to the ceiling.
“During the ceremony, Dryden put his arms around his old coach and looked up at the sweater. It felt like something greater had happened there,” says Dr. Robillard, who has a PhD in education and is an independent researcher.
Former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Ken Dryden waves to the crowd during a ceremony to retire his number "29" in Montreal January 29, 2007.
Mr. Dryden, now a Toronto Liberal MP, played for the Canadiens between 1971 and 1979, winning six Stanley Cups as one of the National Hockey League's premier goaltenders.
For fans, the spiritual focus of hockey is reminiscent of that found in Eastern religions, where the significance isn't so much on dogma but on the individual journey of self-discovery and self-transformation, the researchers said.
Fan memorabilia signals a sense of “being with the other,” adds Prof. Tekel, as well as, of course, support for the team. “When people talk about watching hockey, they use the language of going on a spiritual journey, going beyond themselves, and moving to something that has greater meaning,” she says.
The Canadiens, nicknamed the Habs in English, are even called Sainte-Flanelle – the Holy Flannel – in French.
Mr. Robillard was struck by fans' intense devotion when he dropped into a popular sports bar in Montreal on a night the Canadiens were playing the Boston Bruins. “The fans on opposing teams really cheered one another. It was exceptional. I was in awe,” he said.
Other academics appear to agree with their theory. Prof. Olivier Bauer recently pioneered the world's first course examining the link between hockey and religion at the University of Montreal's Faculty of Theology. The course includes a section on rituals, focusing on the similarities between games and religious mass, and one on relics and the belief of some fans that they have been cured from disease after touching the hockey jersey of Hall of Famer Maurice (Rocket) Richard, whose No. 9 hangs alongside Mr. Dryden's in the Bell Centre.
Hockey isn't the only sport to which an increasingly secular society turns to find meaning, said Prof. Tekel. The same trend can be found with whitewater kayaking, described by devotees as a “spiritual experience.”
“For many, these sports inculcate the emotion and perspective that render the material world sacred,” she said.
