Why Americans almost always when their national anthem is playing, put their left hand on chest?.
I personally can not stand it. It looks so f****** silly and chauvinistic.
Wrong forum for snarkiness.
Since this is the wrong forum for snarkiness, I will just say: we do it to show that we love our country,
Presumably you’re not American? It looks silly to you because it’s a custom local to the US.
It’s considered a form of salute - a “civilian salute”, if you like, used in a situation where a soldier would give a military salute. It’s no different from standing for the anthem, or removing your hat, or whatever the custom is in your particular part of the world.
You might argue that anthems are inherently chauvinistic, or that the practice of saluting anthems is inherently chauvinistic, but I’d be hard pressed to argue that one particular form of salute is chauvinistic while another is not.
Americans are generally more . . . ah, flamboyant in their expressions of national identity than many other nations. They fly the flag rather more than might be considered tasteful in other places, and play the anthem a good deal at sporting events, etc. But, hey, why should they not deal with their own national symbols as they see fit?
Well, I can’t stand it either.
The correct gesture is to place your right hand over your heart.
And it is called he civilian salute to the flag.
http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t33t36+1591+0++
Insofar as there was a factual question here, I think it has been answered, so I’ll close this thread. If you want to rant about how silly it looks or debate whether it’s chauvinistic, we have forums for that.
bibliophage
moderator GQ