Festivus

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This term is a Seinfeldism

Festivus is an annual holiday created by Reader's Digest writer and editor Daniel O'Keefe, based on acient Roman practices and re-popularized by The Strike, the 10th. episode of the 9th. season 9 (on December 18, 1997) of the American famous TV show Seinfeld. It is celebrated on December 23, but many people celebrate it at other times, often to avoid the Christmas rush.

The idea behind the holiday is to celebrate something around the Christmas and Hanukkah festivities that doesn't involve religious beliefs. As the Seinfeld character that "invented" the celebration within the show, Frank Costanza, puts it, the holiday is "a Festivus for the rest of us!". As conceptualized by the fictional character, Festivus is supposed to be a non-denominational holiday to be celebrated by those frustrated or jaded with the commercialism and pressure surrounding the Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa season.

As presented by Seinfeld's characters, among its traditions there is the decorative Festivus Pole, an aluminum tube about the size of a Christmas Tree, and practices as the "Airing of Grievances", in which each person tells everyone else all the ways they have disappointed him or her over the past year, and the "Feats of Strength", which involves wrestling the head of the household to the floor after the Festivus Meal, the holiday ends if the head of the household is actually pinned.