Festivus Continues Long After ‘Seinfeld’

“Seinfeld,” the “show about nothing,” gave us many memorable scenes that continue as cultural icons long after the show itself has become dated an unwatchable. One that apparently keeps growing is the mock holiday celebration called “Festivus.”

Long before company celebrators bench-pressed fax machines, partygoers performed competitive face-plants into ice water, or family members gathered around an aluminum pole to wield complaints at one another, the common people of ancient Rome began to act up.

They were the unruly lot during official religious holidays, the ones who were “raising hell on the streets” while the “elite were putting on their robes,” said journalist Allen Salkin. The adverb to describe their behavior, he said: Festivus, the Latin world for “festive.”

A few thousand years later, and thanks to a “Seinfeld” writer whose father had made Festivus a quirky household tradition, a 1997 episode of the famed sitcom popularized the peculiar day.

To hear it from Frank Costanza, the character played by Jerry Stiller, the December 23 observance calls for little more than the erection of an aluminum pole, the airing of grievances and the demonstration of feats of strength — which preferably culminate in wrestling down to the ground and pinning the head of the household.

“People want something that’s nothing,” said Salkin, author of “Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us,” a book that chronicles the birth and flourishing of this oddly sacred day. “All the traditional holidays exclude somebody,” but with this one, “everyone’s in on the joke.”

The Festivus faithful have gathered across the globe and have come together in places as various as seedy bars, campus squares and corporate boardrooms. Citizens, with varied degrees of success, have petitioned to raise Festivus poles beside public nativity scenes. Social networking sites and holiday-specific venues — like festivusbook.com and festivusweb.com — are go-to places for those who want to share the cheer, or jeers.

That people are taking an ironic “holiday” and celebrating it unironically is rather ironic.

Otherwise, I’m not sure I get the point.  The idea that existing holiday celebrations are somehow exclusionary is strange.  I haven’t been particularly excited about Christmas  in decades but I don’t feel “excluded” when I see trees and hear annoying carols in November.  I’m not Jewish and care not a whit about Hannukkah — much less the silly, made-up Kwanzaa — but it doesn’t hurt my feelings that others are celebrating them.

I suppose “Festivus” provides an excuse to have a party.   But why do you need an excuse?

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. rodney dill says:

    Otherwise, I’m not sure I get the point. The idea that existing holiday celebrations are somehow exclusionary is strange. I haven’t been particularly excited about Christmas in decades but I don’t feel “excluded” when I see trees and hear annoying carols in November. I’m not Jewish and care not a whit about Hannukkah — much less the silly, made-up Kwanzaa — but it doesn’t hurt my feelings that others are celebrating them.

    I suppose “Festivus” provides an excuse to have a party. But why do you need an excuse?

    Good Airing of Grievances, you’re in the Fesitivus spirit already.

    😉

  2. Boyd says:

    Maybe I’m in a contentious mood today. My commenting here sure seems to indicate that. At any rate…

    …the silly, made-up Kwanzaa…

    I’m not sure about the “silly” part, but all of these holidays are made-up. Kwanzaa was just made-up much more recently, and not by a major religion.

  3. James Joyner says:

    I’m not sure about the “silly” part, but all of these holidays are made-up. Kwanzaa was just made-up much more recently, and not by a major religion.

    True enough. Christmas and Hanukkah are at least part of a larger narrative, though.