Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on December
23 as a way to celebrate the holiday season without
participating in its pressures and commercialism. It was
created by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into
popular culture by his son Daniel, a screenwriter for the
TV show Seinfeld, as part of a comical story line on the
show. The holiday's celebration, as shown on Seinfeld,
includes an unadorned aluminum" Festivus pole",
practices such as the "Airing of Grievances" and "Feats
of Strength", and the labeling of easily explainable
events as "Festivus miracles". Celebrants of the holiday
sometimes refer to it as "a Festivus for the rest of us", a
saying taken from the O'Keefe family traditions and
popularized in the Seinfeld episode to describe
Festivus' non-commercial aspect.
On Seinfeld:
The story of the first Festivus is a simple one. Many
December 23rd's ago, a great man named Frank
Costanza went to buy a doll for his son. He reached for
the last one, but so did another man. As Frank rained
blows upon him, he thought there had to be another
way. The doll was destroyed, but out of that, a new
holiday was born. It was called Festivus. No, not
feminist, Festivus. A Festivus for the rest of us.
Festivus, as Frank explained it, is a celebration like no
other, composed of do-it-yourself ceremonies based on
the principle that "father knows best".
