NewspaperCrane
Well-Known Member
For those of you who do not know I'm not a particularly Religious individual. In fact, I'm quite non religious. But it's nice to have a holiday around Christmas anyways. That's why me and my other non religious friends have for the last three years been celebrating Festivus. Now to start off with this, I'd like to say that this is in no way going to be an angry, anti religious blog post. I believe there many problems with Christmas, and Religion is way far down on the list. In fact, I really don't like getting or giving people Christmas presents. They are something which should come from actually caring and paying attention to the person, not from them filling out a list and you swiping your credit card. But, I Digress.
For those of you who don't know what Festivus is, it was a holiday created by one of the writers of the show Seinfeld's father. It was introduced to the world by Seinfeld, but it predates it. The idea is that Chrismas has become too commercialized, many of it's rituals and traditions silly, and the entire thing is mostly pointless. Everyone celebrates Festivus differently, however there are three main traditions (and a few that we don't really follow) they are:
The Festivus Pole: The Festivus pole is in place of a Christmas Tree. The idea is that it is the main symbol of festivus, and when it is placed in your living room on the stand it says that it is festivus, or festivus is coming soon. Just like the christmas tree. Festivus poles are typically made of Aluminum (Very high Strength to weight ratio), and with no Tinsel. Tinsel is distracting, along with a base to set it upright. Our festivus pole is actually made out of a fence post purchased at home depot. You'd think that coming up with a base for a Festivus pole would be easy, but we were far to cheap to buy one of those "Real Tree" tree stands, so our festivus pole is held up by an orange Home Depot bucket with a hole in the lid, and weight placed in the bottom to keep it upright. It's not actually aluminum, but it was inexpensive, which at the end of the day is what Festivus is really about.
The next tradition: The Feats of strength. So the feats of strength is a vague tradition with only one specific rule: Festivus isn't over until the head of the household has been pinned. Typically, our Feats of strength take the form of randomly tackling people and attempting to assert dominance by pinning them to the floor. The only one who is exempt from most of this is the head of the household, typically he isn't tackled until the end of the night, wherein three or four of us will all bring him down at once, thus ending festivus. As you can imagine, this particular tradition has lead to many injuries and broken things. That's just the way it goes.
The Third Tradition: The Airing of Grievances. "I got a lot a problems with you people, and now you're gonna hear about it." The airing of grievances is my favorite tradition. We typically sit around in a circle and everyone takes a turn. When it is your turn you look around the Circle, look someone in the eye, and tell them all of the ways they've disappointed you in the past year. Some times it gets a bit vicious, however it's actually rather good for us. It allows us the perfect time to say things that we otherwise would never have the chance to air. I think it's made us better friends. Of course, it probably wouldn't be as bad if we didn't wait until we were all drunk for the airing of Grievances.
Traditions we don't practice:
Festivus Dinner: Traditionally meatloaf, we normally just go out to eat or eat before we gather.
Festivus Miracles: Any time anything good happens we claim that it's a festivus miracle.
Date: Festivus is traditionally Celebrated on Christmas Eve Eve (December 23rd). We change the date based on everyone's availability, whatwith college and such.
Traditions we don't plan:
Throwing up: I have to say, I actually started this at the very first Festivus. It seems like every year SOMEONE ends up throwing up. It's not mandatory, but it just kind of keeps happening.
All and all though, I have to say practicing festivus with my friends is a great time. It was something we started before everyone went away for college, and now that we've all gone our separate ways, it's helped us to stay in touch and make sure we all see each other at least once a year. It really brings everyone together without all the expensiveness and commercializationness of christmas. Festivus is what christmas would be if it weren't for all the bullshit.
What are some odd Holiday traditions that you guys have with your friends/Families? Does anyone else practice Festivus?
For those of you who don't know what Festivus is, it was a holiday created by one of the writers of the show Seinfeld's father. It was introduced to the world by Seinfeld, but it predates it. The idea is that Chrismas has become too commercialized, many of it's rituals and traditions silly, and the entire thing is mostly pointless. Everyone celebrates Festivus differently, however there are three main traditions (and a few that we don't really follow) they are:
The Festivus Pole: The Festivus pole is in place of a Christmas Tree. The idea is that it is the main symbol of festivus, and when it is placed in your living room on the stand it says that it is festivus, or festivus is coming soon. Just like the christmas tree. Festivus poles are typically made of Aluminum (Very high Strength to weight ratio), and with no Tinsel. Tinsel is distracting, along with a base to set it upright. Our festivus pole is actually made out of a fence post purchased at home depot. You'd think that coming up with a base for a Festivus pole would be easy, but we were far to cheap to buy one of those "Real Tree" tree stands, so our festivus pole is held up by an orange Home Depot bucket with a hole in the lid, and weight placed in the bottom to keep it upright. It's not actually aluminum, but it was inexpensive, which at the end of the day is what Festivus is really about.
The next tradition: The Feats of strength. So the feats of strength is a vague tradition with only one specific rule: Festivus isn't over until the head of the household has been pinned. Typically, our Feats of strength take the form of randomly tackling people and attempting to assert dominance by pinning them to the floor. The only one who is exempt from most of this is the head of the household, typically he isn't tackled until the end of the night, wherein three or four of us will all bring him down at once, thus ending festivus. As you can imagine, this particular tradition has lead to many injuries and broken things. That's just the way it goes.
The Third Tradition: The Airing of Grievances. "I got a lot a problems with you people, and now you're gonna hear about it." The airing of grievances is my favorite tradition. We typically sit around in a circle and everyone takes a turn. When it is your turn you look around the Circle, look someone in the eye, and tell them all of the ways they've disappointed you in the past year. Some times it gets a bit vicious, however it's actually rather good for us. It allows us the perfect time to say things that we otherwise would never have the chance to air. I think it's made us better friends. Of course, it probably wouldn't be as bad if we didn't wait until we were all drunk for the airing of Grievances.
Traditions we don't practice:
Festivus Dinner: Traditionally meatloaf, we normally just go out to eat or eat before we gather.
Festivus Miracles: Any time anything good happens we claim that it's a festivus miracle.
Date: Festivus is traditionally Celebrated on Christmas Eve Eve (December 23rd). We change the date based on everyone's availability, whatwith college and such.
Traditions we don't plan:
Throwing up: I have to say, I actually started this at the very first Festivus. It seems like every year SOMEONE ends up throwing up. It's not mandatory, but it just kind of keeps happening.
All and all though, I have to say practicing festivus with my friends is a great time. It was something we started before everyone went away for college, and now that we've all gone our separate ways, it's helped us to stay in touch and make sure we all see each other at least once a year. It really brings everyone together without all the expensiveness and commercializationness of christmas. Festivus is what christmas would be if it weren't for all the bullshit.
What are some odd Holiday traditions that you guys have with your friends/Families? Does anyone else practice Festivus?
