Festivus: The Anti Consumerisum and Commercialism Holiday

Happy Festivus, for the rest of us! Festivus meaning "festive" in Latin is a made up holiday based on a December 18, 1997 episode of Seinfeld entitled "The Strike". Possibly one of the most clever and bitingly funny episodes ever, the holiday created my Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller, father of Actor Ben Stiller) is resurrected when his son, George (Jason Alexander) is caught handing out fake donation cards in lieu of a tradition Christmas gift at work. When his boss confronts him on his bogus donations to the made up "Human Fund" charity, George blames the lie on his fear of persecution for his beliefs in the holiday of Festivus, a holiday based on rebelling against the consumerism and commercialism of Christmas. With an observance day of December 23, the holiday is based on three principles or events.

To replace a Christmas tree an unadorned, aluminum pole is resurrected. Fans of the show have come to adore this so much, there now is a website festivuspoles.com where one can purchase their own Festivus decorations. The Festivus dinner begins with "the airing of the grievances" which is a period where everyone tells their family members and loved ones how they have disappointed them in that year. After a Festivus dinner, the night culminates in "the demonstration of the feats of strength" where the head of the household is wrestled to the ground and pinned down.

In the episode, when George's boss calls his bluff on the bizarre sounding holiday, he asks to share in the Festivus dinner and thus George's father resurrects the family traditions and gets "Cosmo" Kramer on board with his antics.

One of the writer's for the show, Dan O'Keefe, said he got the idea for the episode on a holiday and traditions his own father, Reader's Digest editor Daniel O'Keefe, began in 1966. O'Keefe found some of the traditions in a book describing obscure holidays and began his own annual Festivus celebrations. In an interview, O'Keefe stated that although there was no aluminum pole in the original Festivus, there was the airing of the grievances (which was done into a tape recorder) and Daniel O'Keefe wrestled his two brothers after their meal. There were also other traditions which never made it onto Seinfeld such as a "clock in a bag" that held some sort of symbolism for the O'Keefe's.