covid19

Bundesliga is set to continue its season on May 16 without spectators. (photo from https://time.com/5836077/baseball-covid-coronavirus/)

COVID-19 has put a damper on sporting events around the world. All sports and gatherings of more than six people have been prohibited since March.

When sports are played without spectators, they are usually referred to as “behind closed doors.” Sports can be played behind closed doors depending on a number of reasons such as civil unrest, potential clashes between fans, and pandemics. Without fans, the passion of a sporting event is severely diminished.

A unique word from German describing this phenomenon is geisterspiel. The word geisterspiel once referred to soccer games that were so blanketed in winter fog that the players looked like ghosts and the fans had no idea where the ball was on the field. Geisterspiel contains two German words – geister, which means ghosts, and spiel, which means game. A geisterspiel is a game that is played completely in front of cameras, with no spectators in the audience.

This year marks the first geisterspiel of the Bundesliga, a professional soccer league in Germany, due to COVID-19. The season, which was suspended on March 13, will continue on May 16. German fans are being told to stay away from the stadium since no spectators will be allowed inside.

Due to COVID-19, several other notable sporting events will be held behind closed doors. Other leagues that plan to hold geisterspiele* are the K League of South Korea, and the J League of Japan. In the United States, NASCAR will return this weekend with a new set of rules and no audience members. Major League Baseball (MLB) is also set to hold games in the beginning of July with no fans present.

COVID-19 has forced us all to adapt. However, the massive disruption in the sporting schedule around the world has been unprecedented. What sport are you looking forward to watching in person after quarantine is over?

*plural of geisterspiel

Usually bustling with student life, the Ursuline campus in Louisville has become desolate because of school closures.

Quarantine is the buzzword that’s sweeping across the internet, social media, and the news. But what does it mean exactly?

The word quarantine actually originated during another pandemic, hundreds of years ago. The Bubonic plague lasted from 1347 to 1353 and killed over 20 million people in Europe – wiping out one third of the continent’s total population.

To prevent the spread of the Black Death in Italy, ships were isolated for trentino days if they were returning from plagued areas. Trentino is the Italian word for thirty days. Sailors were required to stay on their ships for the thirty day period. About a century later, trentino was extended to quarantina, a forty day period instead.

Scholars don’t know exactly why isolation was increased to forty days. Obviously, more time in isolation allows the disease to run its course and prevent its spread. Others believe that the forty day period is Biblical in nature – for example, Lent lasts for forty days.

The word quarantine comes from the Italian word quarantina meaning forty days. This is my 29th day at home and I do not expect to go back to school for the remainder of the year. To stay sane during quarantine, I’ve been reading, blogging, and Facetiming my friends. My family has also been baking a lot; they made me a chocolate cake from scratch for my 15th birthday last week. Even though I’m enjoying the time with my family, I am definitely looking forward to life returning to normal.

How are you passing the time?