Happy holidays, everyone! While you could be celebrating Christmas or Hannukah, there's also the very real chance that you could be one of the people who chooses to reject the mainstream holidays in favor of Festivus, the greatest TV holiday to ever exist. Popularized in an episode of Seinfeld, Festivus has since gone on to become a holiday celebrated to varying degrees of seriousness. In honor of that, Jason Alexander, formerly George Costanza of Seinfeld fame, wishes everyone out there a merry Festivus.
Jason Alexander took to Twitter to wish everyone a happy holiday season from the Costanza's. He hopes that you "make merry round your pole," referencing the aluminum pole of Festivus that stands in for Christmas trees. Alexander also urges you to be strong so that you can pin the head of your household in the Feats of Strength in order to end the holiday. Finally, he hopes that you don't shout your grievances at each other, but you should ignore that because it's called the Airing of Grievances and how else can you share grievances but shout them?
Originating in a 1997 episode of Seinfeld called "The Strike," Festivus is perhaps the most popular thing to come out of what is already a very popular sitcom. In the episode, the fake holiday was conceived by George's father, Frank Costanza. As he rained down blows on another man while shopping for a doll for his son, Frank thought that there had to be a better way. So, he created Festivus as a rejection of the commercialism of Christmas. The holiday features several components such as Festivus dinner, The Airing of Grievances and The Feats of Strength.
Festivus has since been adopted as a pseudo-holiday by real people, spurning a number of books and think pieces about the influences of Festivus. The funny thing about the holiday, though, is that it was actually real for many years before winding up in a Seinfeld episode. It was a family tradition of Seinfeld writer Dan O'Keefe, whose father created Festivus as early as 1966. The real version has some differences from the TV one, mainly that instead of an aluminum pole, the O'Keefe family put a clock in a sack and nailed it to the wall. To this day, Dan O'Keefe has no idea why they did that.
Happy Festivus, readers! Out of curiosity, are any of you celebrating the holiday, or do you know anyone who does? Let us know in the comments below.
