This week is Cup Match, a two-day holiday to celebrate two very important days in Bermuda's history: Emancipation Day and Somers Day.These days should be celebrated and remembered, but I bet you if you stop any kid on the street and ask them about Emancipation Day you are going to get a blank look. Ask them about Cup Match and you will get more information than you can use.Now you can't blame people for forgetting the real reason behind the two-day holiday. It's overshadowed by stocking up on booze, cash for the Crown and Anchor game, making sure that you got two outfits for the two days, buying enough cans of compressed air for our air horns, ensuring there are no holes in the tents used last year and shopping enough to make sure that we have a greeze that would feed the Bermuda Regiment.It's for these reasons that we so easily forget why we are observing these days to begin with, especially Emancipation Day. A day that celebrates of the eradication of slavery in the British colonies. A very sad time in our history that we should never forget.So I think most of you will agree with me these are the two most important days on our holiday calendar. Agreed? Yes?Now, will someone please explain to me why we celebrate by playing and watching the most boring, slowest, dullest game ever known to man? Okay maybe that's a little harsh. NASCAR is. But cricket is right behind it.I was once asked by a very loaded Southerner: “Is that cricket game y'all play down here like our great American pastime, baseball”?I replied, putting on my very 'frightfully British' accent: “Well yes sir it is, except it's baseball on Valium.”Our visitor was clearly a sucker for punishment. He then asked me: “How y'all play that game 'cause I was watching it yesterday for a while and nothing seemed to happen?”“Love to explain old chap, but got a bus to catch,” I said. There was no way I was going to be held responsible for putting one of our few visitors into a comatose stupor. I neglected to tell him about the time one has to spend watching the game to actually witness any movement.Sure, I could have totally confused him by telling him about things like the silly mid-on, the gully, the googley and a sticky wicket and that the game is so slow that one has time to apply layers of sun screen and put on sweaters between overs. The game takes so long that you have time for tea and lunch. But what I never tell visitors is that the game can take up to five days and still there may not be a winner in the end.I can hear some of you now saying that thousands of people turn up to watch Cup Match every year. Well, they don't. Sure there are some diehards out there who will watch one ball to the next but the majority of the people are there to soak up the atmosphere, see and be seen. This is the time of the year to dress up, get liquored up, and oh, let's not forget, do some gambling at the Crown and Anchor tables.Still don't believe me? Well go to a regular game one weekend and count the spectators. The number sitting in the bleachers wouldn't even make up a team. Thus proving you need booze, food and gambling to bring in the crowds.On another matter, after last week's rant I received an e-mail from a reader, Eurotile manager Dale Lewis. He expressed concern that my column may have left the impression that his store closes at noon. Rest assured Mr Lewis, it was not your store I was referring to. But now that I know you close at 4pm on Saturdays, you have a new customer. By the way, what discount do you offer to seniors?Have a safe and fun Cup Match everyone.