'Festivus' Gains Standing Across Country

Celebrating the holidays with a diverse group of friends can get tricky. That's where Festivus, the "holiday for the rest of us," comes in.

Invented in 1966 by a Reader's Digest editor but made popular through a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode, the fictional celebration has been brought to life by fervent supporters across the country - including Clarkston native Blake Coe.

According to the "Seinfeld" episode, Festivus is celebrated on Dec. 23 and is marked by a tinsel-free aluminum pole, feats of strength - like wrestling - and the airing of grievances, during which followers tell loved ones how they have disappointed them during the year.

Though Coe, 24, also celebrates Christmas, he said Festivus is a welcome break from the holidays.

"With all of the things that now make the Christmas season about political correctness, over-commercialization and greed, it is refreshing that Festivus separates itself from that," said Coe, who has been celebrating the fictional holiday for five years.

Coe recently moved to Chicago, but he'll be home in Clarkston for Festivus. On Saturday, Coe's parents, Sally and Ken, put up the pole. Grandma was there, too.

Coe said he bought the aluminum pole - a centerpiece of Festivus celebrations - a few years ago at Home Depot for $5. However, merchants are now selling them online for almost $40. "I wish we had thought of that at the time," Blake Coe said, laughing.

The term "Festivus" yields more than 20,000 Web sites in monthly Google searches, said Allen Salkin, who tracked the figures for his new book, "Festivus: The Holiday for the Rest of Us," which was released in October by Warner Books.

"Nobody else is writing about it, but it is out there - a very deep and widespread subculture," Salkin said. "I think it has to do with a need for tolerance and a holiday where you don't exclude anybody."

Coe and his friends observe the feats of strength by holding annual billiards and video game tournaments. As for the airing of grievances - "we pretty much go around and talk about each other's less finer moments," said Pat Heber, a Clarkston resident who recently graduated from Michigan State University.

Typically, the feats of strength, or aggression-absorbing activities, are held immediately after the airing of grievances, but there are no hard and fast rules, Salkin said.

But not everyone will. Elizabeth Zill of Frankenmuth, who is featured in Salkin's book, said one Festivus celebration was enough for her family. A few years ago, Zill strung lights around a metal coat rack and presented it to her teenage daughter as an alternative to the Christmas tree the family never bought.

"Oh, my daughter was ticked at me," Zill said, laughing. "George didn't find it too amusing either," she added, referring to "Seinfeld" character George Costanza (Jason Alexander), who was less than thrilled about his father's idea. "I have a George."

Well, before Christmas, there were winter soltice celebrations --

So what?

All holidays are "invented" in the sense that some humans decided to celebrate them based on some event or belief.

I never claimed anything to the contrary.

Thus the "secular" Christmas is just as much a legitimate holiday as the 4th of July or Trick-or-Treat day.

It's a "holiday" in the sense that it's different from other days, set aside, holy. So, Right, it's a day set aside by those of no belief, to share in the joy of those who do.

But it's not really Christ Mass, for they do not believe. They just feel empty if they don't.

I understand, it must be an empty feeling to be of no belief. And it's no fun to be left out.

Festivus is a perfect way for those people to feel "in" instead of "out".

I don't even mind if they join in. What I do mind is when they try to change what it is into what it isn't.

It ain't a secular holiday. It's ain't Santy Claus day. Further, Thanksgiving ain't Turkey day either.

From "The Hamptons"

George: You saw Jane topless?

Jerry: Well, when you went for the tomatoes she lied out topless.

George: Oh you mean face down on her chest.

Jerry: No.

George: Face up on her back?

Jerry: Yeah.

George: Well why'd she do that?

Kramer: I guess she was hot.

George: You mean she just laid there topless?

Kramer: No, no, she got up, walked around...

George: Walked around? And you looked?

Kramer: Of course. She's got a great body, buddy. All right, I'm gonna go upstairs, I'll be right back.

George: I can't believe it, you saw her before me.

Jerry: Think of me as a doctor. (They go outside again)

George: Well, how good a look did you get?

Jerry: Well what'd you mean?

George: Well, if she was a criminal and you had to describe her to a police sketch artist...

Jerry: They'd pick her up in about ten minutes.

From "The Secret Code":

Peterman's mother's apartment. George is sleeping in a chair with a coat covering him. Peterman wakes him up.

Peterman: Shake off the dew, my friend.

George: Yeah. What time is it?

Peterman: It's morning. Thanks for seeing me through the night. I'll make us a pot of coffee, George. Watch her, won't you?

George: Who?

Peterman: Momma. Just talk to her, George. The doctor seems to think it helps.

Peterman leaves, George attempts conversation.

George: Hi. I-I really should be getting back to my fiancé, you know, we, uh, we had this big fight yesterday and, uh, well she, she wants to-to know my secret code. I-I don't know, I can't tell her. The funny thing is, you know, I would really love to tell someone 'cause it's killing me. You uh, you wanna know what it is? It's Bosco. You know, the chocolate syrup? I love that stuff, I pour it in milk, it's my favorite drink. Hoo-hoo, boy, that is a relief!

Mrs. Peterman: Bosco. Bosco.

George: Oh, shhh.

Mrs. Peterman (sitting up): Bosco!

Peterman (from another room): Momma?

George" Quiet, quiet! It's a secret.

Mrs. Peterman: Bosco! Bosco! Bosco!

George: Shut up! Shut up!

Peterman runs in.

Peterman: Momma! What are you trying to say?

Mrs. Peterman: Bosco.

Mrs. Peterman falls back in bed and closes her eyes.

Peterman: She's gone. Bosco?

Peterman looks at George, who shrugs.

Saturnalia was the feast at which the the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which took place on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, up to 23 December. In the vagaring Roman calendar the Winter Solstice fell in this period; in imperial times that event was celebrated in honour of Sol Invictus and put on 25 December by emperor Aurelian in 274, so after the Saturnalia.

The Saturnalia originally were celebrated with a public banquet. It became one of the most popular Roman festivals which lead to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having masters and slaves switch places, which led to widespread drinking and debauchery, so that among Christians the (lower case) word "saturnalia" came to mean "orgy".

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — io (pronounced "yo") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").

It has been postulated that Christians in the fourth century assigned December 25th (the Winter Solstice on the Julian calendar) as Christ's birthday (and thus Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. This would sidestep the problem of eliminating an already popular holiday while Christianizing the population. This is supposition however and it is also possible that the early Christians sought to replace the Pagan celebration in an act of triumphalism. There is also evidence that Christians calculated the date of December 25th as Christ's birthday based on a Jewish tradition of the "integral age" of the Jewish prophets (the idea that the prophets of Israel died on the same dates as their birth or conception), and a miscalculation of the date of Jesus' death, and that Aurelian moved the feast of Sol Invictus to December 25th to co-opt the Christian celebration.

The Romans also practiced many traditions similar to Christmas; specifically the "Christmas tree". The Romans often cut down evergreens and decorated them to pay homage to Saturn, the god of farming. This was to honor the fact that the evergreens remained alive during the harshness of winter. It was also traditional for Romans to exchange gifts during this holiday. These gifts were customarily made of silver, although nearly anything could be given as a gift for the occasion. Several epigrams by the poet Martial survive, seemingly crafted as riddling gift-tags for gifts of food. The medieval celebration of the Feast of Fools was another continuation of Saturnalia into the Christian era.

Seneca the Younger wrote about Rome during Saturnalia around CE 50:

It is now the month of December, when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations, as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn and those for transacting business....Were you here, I would willingly confer with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the toga.

Or, in the original:

December est mensis: cum maxime civitas sudat. Ius luxuriae publice datum est; ingenti apparatu sonant omnia, tamquam quicquam inter Saturnalia intersit et dies rerum agendarum; adeo nihil interest ut non videatur mihi errasse qui dixit olim mensem Decembrem fuisse, nunc annum. [...]

— From Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, XVIII

Macrobius in the 5th century wrote a book of fiction called Saturnalia, about the great Roman intellectuals meeting, celebrating, and discussing, and set at the time of the Saturnalia; we learn a lot about the traditions of that day.

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