Festivus, the secular alternative to Christmas, is celebrated annually on December 23rd. Learn about its origins, traditions, and how to join in the fun.
It's that time of year again. Happy Festivus! The anti-holiday holiday made famous on Seinfeld is celebrated annually on Dec. 23 by those who want to embrace their inner Bah Humbug with a secular alternative to Christmas. Festivus is a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 Seinfeld episode. Billed as Festivus for the rest of us, the holiday is celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 as an all-inclusive, secular alternative to Christmas consumerism.
In protest of Christmas’ commercialism, George Costanza's father, Frank Costanza, puts up an unadorned aluminum pole instead of a tree. The metal, he says admiringly, has a very high strength-to-weight ratio. The Seinfeld Festivus episode developed from series writer Dan O’Keefe’s childhood experiences. His father invented the holiday in the 1960s. As a kid, we’d come home and there’d be weird decorations, O’Keefe said in an interview with The Associated Press. There was the playing of strange German and Italian pop music from the ’50s. And the airing of grievances was a real thing. Instead of a pole, his family celebration featured a clock and a bag. (O’Keefe has said his father won’t disclose what they symbolized.) The official Festivus dish is meatloaf, according to the Seinfeld episode titled The Strike. Serve it to guests atop a bed of lettuce. According to the Seinfeld model, there are four main traditions associated with observing Festivus. The traditional Christmas tree is replaced with an aluminum pole that is decoration-free, mainly because tinsel is too distracting, explains Frank Costanza. Once everyone is seated around the dinner table, start the airing of grievances, in which family members and those in attendance get a chance to share pent-up feelings towards each other over the past year
FESTIVUS SEINFELD ANTI-HOLIDAY TRADITIONS HOLIDAY
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