What does it take to follow a fake?

There are many religious “fakes” out there: Festivus from Seinfeld, the Church of Elvis, and Kumaré, a pretend guru. 

I would never participate in a fake religious tradition, you may think, how disgraceful!

Yet many of fakes catch on, and are celebrated by the thousands and come up in everyday conversation.

Many others do not. The Church of the Almighty Dollar –  what is that? According to David Chidester, it among the many obscure, cult followings that pervade American culture.

How do some fakes like Seinfeld’s Festivus gain thousands of followers?

Perhaps it’s because they adapted from a previously established religion, Christmas.

Originally made up by a Seinfeld writer’s father, Festivus combatted the commercialism of Christmas, and proclaimed itself a holiday “For the Rest of Us.” Atheists now celebrate it across the country on December 23^rd. In 2013, a Festivus Pole was displayed in the Wisconsin State Capitol alongside other religious displays.

Festivus was made to criticize Christmas, and involves traditions mirroring Christmas ones; the aluminum pole and the Christmas tree are a prime example. And it has caught on, you may say.

The Christmas traditions were similarly copied and adapted from the pagan Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. Christmas was nonexistent until 300 AD. Christians disagreed with the pagan rituals, so they took pagans’ celebrations and made their own, using the darkest day to symbolize Jesus’s light coming into the world. And Christmas is certainly not a fake today, even though it started that way.

Adapting from what is already around you, transforming symbols from the established, certainly help make a fake religion became believable and even authentic.

Fakeness vs. Authenticity in Religion

David Chidester wrote in his book Authentic Fakes, “even fake religions can be doing a kind of symbolic, cultural, and religious work that is real,” (Introduction, 9). This quote captures the central theme of our discussions this week, fakeness versus authenticity. In the film Kumaré, Vikram Gandhi literally makes a fake religion, yet he obtains a following so strong that he changes peoples’ lives. But what really is it about Kumaré that people got so attached to? First of all, there are physical aspects of Kumaré that made him seem authentic (as seen in the photo below), such as his hair, clothes, beard, and even his props (necklace and walking stick). He even created fake chants and yoga moves. However, what made his “religion” real weren’t the physical aspects, but the beliefs he taught. His teachings include that all people have a guru and happiness inside. Kumaré was able to help his followers with real problems, such as marriage issues, weight loss troubles, and even career problems. The help that he provided these people was completely authentic even though the physical aspects of the religion were fake. It is obvious after this week that fakeness and authenticity come hand in hand. There are fake aspects of every religion. Christianity is as real as a religion can get, however, aspects like Santa Claus and Christmas trees are unauthentic. Even though Christmas is related to these fake aspects, the meaning of Christmas is completely real. Kumaré, as well as Christmas both prove that you cannot have authenticity without fakeness in a religion and vice versa.

"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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