Your traditional holiday Festivus
Festivus
Festivus is celebrated on December 23 and it is not a traditional holiday like Christmas or New year, though people celebrate this day as Christmas. It might seems uneasy and it makes sense. This festival is said to be for everyone.
Festivus was a holiday featured in the Season 9 Seinfeld episode “The Strike”, which first aired on December 18, 1997. Since then, many people have been inspired by this zany, offbeat Seinfeld holiday and now celebrate Festivus as any other traditional holiday. You might think that this is weird, how can a show make a traditional holiday? We will come to know about that in this blog later on.
What is Festivus?
Festivus is the name of secular and non- commercial holiday characterized by the raising an aluminum pole, the serving of a dinner, the airing of grievances and the demonstration of feats of strength.
These words might sound new to you. But we will tell you everything in this festive. This festival has its own way of celebrating it. You don’t need a tree or any cakes to celebrate it instead you need an aluminum pole. Later it is followed by a celebratory dinner with friends and family. After that the most annoying ceremony happens that is, every individual has to say their grudges of their previous years in front of everyone. This is the jist of the festival, and we will come to know more about it .
Where did Festivus come from?
Festivus was popularized by the TV show Seinfeld, that was aired December 18, 1997, called “The Strike”. The episode follows the characters as they learn about and resurrect character Frank Costanza’s tradition of Festivus.
The holiday is based on the real life tradition celebrated by the families of Seinfeld’s writers, according to the article of 2004, New York Times, invented by the writer Daniel O’Keefe’s father, Dan, this holiday dates back to 1966. The first Festivus was a celebration of when Dan first met his wife.
Who uses Festivus?
Festivus is known as “for the rest of us”, and it exists in the Christmas. It consists of four major elements: the Festivus Pole, which is a simple aluminum pole with no adornments: the Airing of Grievances, which is when you tell gathered friends and family members how they have disappointed you since the last Festivus celebration; dinner (the famous Seinfeld episode shows the characters eating meatloaf on a bed of lettuce, mashed potatoes, and peas); and finally Feats of Strength, which is when participants wrestle the head of the household to the ground.
How to celebrate Festivus?
Festivus Pole
In the episode, the tradition of Festivus begins with an aluminum pole. Frank Costanza cites its “very high strength-to-weight ratio” as appealing. During Festivus, the pole is displayed unadorned, as Frank “find[s] tinsel distracting.”
Dan O’Keefe credits fellow Seinfeld writer Jeff Schaffer with introducing the concept. The aluminum pole was not part of the original O’Keefe family celebration, which centered on putting a clock in a bag and nailing it to a wall.
Festivus Dinner
In “The Strike”, a celebratory dinner was shown on the evening of Festivus prior to the Feats of Strength and during the Airing of Grievances. The on-air meal showed Estelle Costanza served a sliced reddish meatloaf-shaped food on a bed of lettuce. In the episode, no alcohol is served at the dinner, but George’s boss, Mr. Kruger, drank something from a hip flask.
The original holiday dinner in the O’Keefe household featured ‘turkey or ham’ as described in Dan O’Keefe’s The Real Festivus book.
Airing of Grievances
The “Airing of Grievances” takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. In the television episode, Frank Costanza began it with the phrase, “I got a lotta problems with you people, and now you’re going to hear about it!” It consists of each person lashing out at others and the world about how they have been disappointed in the past year.
Feats of Strength
The Feats of Strength are the final tradition observed in the celebration of Festivus, celebrated immediately following (or in the case of “The Strike”, during) the Festivus dinner. The head of the household selects one person at the Festivus celebration and challenges them to a wrestling match. Tradition states Festivus is not over until the head of the household is pinned. In “The Strike”, however, Kramer manages to circumvent the rule by creating an excuse to leave. The Feats of Strength are mentioned twice in the episode before they take place. In both instances, no detail was given as to what had happened, but in both instances, George Costanza ran out of the coffee shop in a mad panic, implying he had bad experiences with the Feats of Strength in the past. What the Feats of Strength entailed was revealed at the very end of the episode, when it took place. Failing to pin the head of the household results in Festivus continuing until such requirement is met.
Festivus miracles
Cosmo Kramer twice declares a “Festivus Miracle” during the Festivus celebration in the Costanza household. Kramer causes the occurrence of two “miracles” by inviting two off-track betting bookies (Tracy Letts and Colin Malone) to dinner with Elaine (men whom Elaine wished to avoid), and by causing Jerry’s girlfriend Gwen to believe that Jerry was cheating on her.
Seinfeld and Festivus
020 might not be the year for the Seinfeld because the most famous comedian Jerry Stiller has died at the age of 92. It was announced by his son Ben Stiller.
In the fifth season of NBC’s “Seinfeld,” which debuted in September 1993, Stiller joined the cast as the father of George Costanza, the hapless sidekick of Jerry Seinfeld’s eponymous character. Frank had been introduced in one episode the previous season, with another actor cast in the role. For later use in syndication, the scenes were re shot with Stiller.
“Seinfeld” enthusiasts know him as the co-inventor of the male bra, the exclaimer of “Serenity now!” to control his rage, and the former Army cook who left military service fluent in Korean and fearful of accidentally poisoning those who ate his food.
O’Keefe Family Practices
The O’Keefe family holiday featured other practices, as detailed in The Real Festivus (2005), a book by Daniel O’Keefe’s son, Dan O’Keefe. Besides providing a first-person account of the early version of the Festivus holiday as celebrated by the O’Keefe family, the book relates how Dan O’Keefe amended or replaced details of his father’s invention to create the Seinfeld episode.
