"George, Festivus is your heritage - it's part of who you are." This memorable phrase was quoted from Frank in Seinfeld 's episode of "Festivus." After watching the episode we quickly learned that Festivus is actually a "fake" holiday. A holiday that Frank made up because he wanted an alternative holiday to participate in so he did not have to succumb to the usual pressure and commercialism initiated by Christmas. Similar to other holidays, Frank made up rituals and symbols to authenticate Festivus. This includes the Festivus pole, Festivus dinner, Airing of Grievances, and Feats of Strength. The unembellished aluminum Festivus pole is supposed to carry the same symbolic meaning as the evergreen conifer used for Christmas. Similar to Thanksgiving there is a dinner that allows people to come together and share what is on their mind. In the case of Festivus, it is the airing of grievances in which each person gets a turn at lashing out at another person and how that person have disappointed them in the past year. To top it off there are always games at holidays and this is where the feats of strength comes in that it is the game of Festivus. Unlike most holiday games the feats of strength is rough and brutal because it is essentially a wrestling match that ends with the pinning of the challenger. After looking over the facts and details of Festivus, it seems as if Festivus can be a "real" holiday. The comparison of Festivus to other holidays showed that they all share the same foundations - the symbolic object, dinner, and games. So this "fake" holiday created by Frank became real because his family celebrated it. During this process, George got embarrassed from Festivus because of its actual presence in his household. In addition, people actually gathered together to celebrate Festivus because it became more real after the reinforcement of Festivus by Frank and Kramer and the lie George told Mr. Kruger. So how can one differentiate between what is a real holiday as opposed to a fake one? Because the truth is that is not all holidays made up and became "real" when more people celebrated it?
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