"The actual inventor of Festivus is Dan O'Keefe, 76, whose son Daniel, a writer on "Seinfeld," appropriated a family tradition for the episode. The elder Mr. O'Keefe was stunned to hear that the holiday, which he minted in 1966, is catching on. "Have we accidentally invented a cult?" he wondered. Maybe. To postulate grandly, the rise of Festivus, a bare-bones affair in which even tinsel is forbidden, may mean that Americans are fed up with the commercialism of the December holidays and are yearning for something simpler."
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Sources
Allen Salkin, in "Fooey to the World: Festivus Is Come" in The New York Times (19 December 2004)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Festivus
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Festivus
Festivus is a secular holiday celebrated on 23 December as a way to celebrate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism. It was created by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a screenwriter for the 166th episode of Seinfeld, The Strike (18 December 1997).
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