FESTIVUS, the secular holiday made famous on the multi-award winning US sitcom Seinfeld, is officially underway. The holiday, celebrated on the 23rd December each year, allows people to participate in the festive season without subscribing to its commercialism. The celebration was originally created by the writer DAN O’KEEFE whose screenwriter son Daniel included it as part of a comic storyline on the popular sitcom starring JERRY Seinfeld.

Festivus’ inclusion on Seinfeld included an aluminium ‘Festivus pole’ as well as practises such as the ‘Airing of Grievances’, ‘Feats of Strength and ‘Festivus Miracles’ which became the name for easily explainable events. The episode revolves around the character ‘Frank Contanza’ who explains how he came up with the new holiday. He says “Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way.” “What happened to the doll?”, asks ‘Cosmo Kramer, to which Contanza replies, “It was destroyed. But out of that a new holiday was born: a Festivus for the rest of us!”

The Seinfeld characters also celebrate with a ‘Festivus’ dinner, shortly followed by the ‘Airing of Grievances’, which Frank describes as “You gather your family around, and tell them all the ways they have disappointed you over the past year!”

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