Posted December 23 2007
The Halachot of Festivus
Festivus is celebrated each year on December 23rd. For the uninitiated, Festivus comes from a Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza’s father creates a holiday because he is sick and tired of the commercialism of the “holiday season,” you can read more about it here. What started as a sitcom plot point is now celebrated by many people around the world each year.
The question that I know all of you are asking is what happens if Festivus falls out on Shabbat, as it happened on last year’s Shabbat Chanukah. Whenever there is a ridiculous halachic question someone will have an equally ridiculous halachic answer.
Once you have dealt with halachic issues you can move onto the bigger questions, like how do I fully participate in the “airing of grievances” when there are so many people to tell how much they have disappointed us this year. Thankfully, someone has come to the rescue with a convenient Facebook application.
Some of you may be questioning the Jewishness of this whole thing. Let me ask you this: What is more Jewish than the misadventures of neurotic Jews in New York City?
Happy Festivus to you all. And to those of you coming to my Festivus party, “I’ve got a lot of problems with you people and now you’re going to hear about it.”
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4 Comments currently posted. 
Benji Rosenzweig says:
ben-yehudah says:
B”H I am so utterly and thoroughly offended, completely and without a doubt, offended that you dare to call my crucial halachic question ridiculous, and furthermore to call my intricate and well-thought out response, ridiculous.
Do realize how many of our brethren I single-handedly assisted to recover from the great trauma the incurred last year when Festivus fell not just Shabbath, not just Hanukkah, not just Shabbath Hanukkah, but the second Shabbath Hanukkah?!
Why I had NEVER in my quasi-rabbinic life ever witness such havoc created by such a calendrical conflict?
Harumpf! I say to you Harumpf!
I do not even know you, yet as it is during your zman reu’i lese’udah (I can only assume that you are in New York, the Festivus birth place), I must use the little known heter to air my grievances at you, even though you may not get this until after your se’udah. You would not be familiar with this heter, as it is only known by the greatest television halachic minds as myself.
Hmmm…other than the above, I guess I really don’t have any grievances, as the link to my post can only aid my rapidly falling technorati authority rating.
So, I say to you, one and all, It’s Festivus for the Rest of Us!
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Shalom Silbermintz says:
I apologize if I offended you with my statements, I assumed in my ignorance these Halachot were pashut but I am obviously wrong.
In fact, today during my Festivus seudah, a question about fulfilling ones requirement of “airing of grievances” from afar came up. If I had read your entry about getting ready for Festivus this year I would have been prepared. (http://esseragaroth.blogspot.com/2007/12/get-ready-for-festivus-2007.html)
I hope that you accept my humblest apologies and hope that one day we will be able to be able to participate in the feats of strength together, in Yerushalayim.
Zechariah Mehler says:
Interesting fact: In 1966, Reader’s Digest editor Dan O’Keefe invented Festivus as a means of celebrating the first date he ever had with his wife. Though the first Festivus transpired during the month of February, the faux holiday was eventually moved to December. Festivus came to Seinfeld in the form of O’Keefe’s son Daniel, who was working for the show as a writer and decided to include the holiday in the aforementioned episode “The Strike” (he added in the now-infamous aluminum pole).
Source: 5 things you didn’t know about Seinfeld by David Nusair
This is a great post. I forgot about Festivus.
Thanks for reviving it.