Having spent the past couple of days living UW-Eau Claire’s latest homecoming weekend, it’s relatively easy to see that the two-day event (and for some of us, three- or four-day event) is like none other in the city.

I don’t have government-generated census data to back up the following claim, but I’ll venture out on a limb and say more students choose to party – and party harder – on Homecoming than any other weekend of the year (I know, shocking news).

But it does kind of make you wonder about a few things.

First off, when did homecoming morph from a celebration focused on the university’s football game to just an excuse for people who don’t consider themselves alcoholics to start drinking Bloody Marys at 9 a.m. on a Saturday? And is it necessarily a bad thing that it did?

Of course not.

I know there is a decent share of the university community that enjoys many of the activities organized for the weekend: the parade, the various games, voting for the king and queen and especially the football game itself. And many people actually do enjoy the events without drinking alcohol and or at least doing so in moderation.

But from the truck stationed behind Stave and Hoop Liquor to accommodate the excess purchases of kegs to having myriad students who spent their Sunday afternoon trying to remove the “She-Nan” stamp from the back of their hand, the evidence of the partyers far outweighs that of their counterparts.

Undoubtedly you will hear (if you haven’t already) some griping from either students, faculty members or, most likely, community members at large, about Homecoming and the way many students act.

I’d say by late today there will be at least a few letters to the editor rolling into The Spectator’s e-mail account scolding those damn college kids that were drinking and throwing bottles, starting fights and basically being drunken rubes throughout the weekend.

But people just need to relax.

True, I saw a few people act rather stupidly. There were a few people who drank a little too much, and there was at least one couple in the courtyard at a local drinking establishment that were partaking in a public display of affection far too graphic to recount here (you know who you are).

But you know what? All of that’s worth it.

At a school in a town where the entertainment options are rather limited, it’s kind of nice to see people get excited and so into a single event.

The weekend falls in the middle of a long semester, and it seems to be a nice release for everyone – no matter how they choose to express themselves.

So whether you showed your school pride by helping with the parade, attending Varsity Night Live! or simply partying a little harder on Homecoming, I hope you had fun.

Because it doesn’t look like Homecoming weekend is going to change any time soon. And that’s definitely not a bad thing.