A Festivus for the Rest of Us: Do Fake Religions Count?

"Faith begins as an experiment and ends as an experience." 

-William Ralph Inge

A staff, a pole, blue light yoga, and an airing of grievances. Combine these together and you get a fake guru, Kumaré, who created his own spiritual following as an experiment to disprove the importance of religious figures, and a father, Frank, who created his own "Festivus" because had had enough of Christmas. Two very inauthentic movements that took fake traditions and symbols and gave them real meaning for real people.  



At what point do these made-up belief systems move from the realm of cultish groups and quirky family traditions to the ranks of mainline religions? In order to achieve true religious authenticity and authority, do they simply need to gain more followers, create more symbols and traditions, and worship a higher power, or does any of that matter at all? 
 

The purpose of a religion isn’t simply to put faith in a higher power and feel something move within, even though that is important and happens within most religions, it is to give a community of people something to believe in and experience together. Even a fake religion can do that. 

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Originally made up by a Seinfeld writer’s father, Festivus combatted the commercialism of Christmas, and proclaimed itself a holiday “For the Rest of Us.”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.

Authentic v. Fake: If the connection is real, does it matter?

David Chidester's Authentic Fakes considers that "even fake religions can be doing a kind of symbolic, cultural, and religious work that is real." (9) The key word in this idea being real. Religion ultimately involves real connections, real advice, and real experiences woven into an identity larger than oneself. 

As demonstrated through Vikram Gandhi's documentary Kumaré, a completely fabricated religion filled with seemingly meaningless rituals, like the yoga movements, was able to very intimately connect with different people. Sure Kumaré's fake costume and props could have facilitated his supporters' trust initially, but ultimately people stick by him at the end of the film because he was a real companion. His kind of teaching encouraged peoples' beliefs in themselves, and as such they could trust him in the end because he did not claim to be a prophet or other godly-figure; he merely acts as an enabler for individuals faith in their own powers and abilities.

Similarly, the celebration of the fabricated holiday, Festivus in Seinfeld, encompasses very real and honest dialogue. Through the "feats of strength" and "airing of grievances", very truthful communication can take place. Although the holiday observance evokes humor on the show, its purpose is to acknowledge real experiences, good or bad, and to celebrate life in its entirety.
Although these are two fabricated religious experiences, they honor real experiences and interactions and allow people to connect and grow. If someone benefits from these religions, does it matter if they were fake originally?

Finding Authenticity in the Inauthentic

David Chidester claims that popular culture has “authentic inauthenticity” and that “religious fakes still do authentic religious work in and through the play of American popular culture.” Festivus is the ultimate example of that because at the while doing authentic religious work it acknowledges the inauthentic pop cultural origins of the holiday. It uses rituals (The Airing of the Grievances and Feats of Strength) and symbols (the aluminum pole) to create a sense of identity and community. These symbols and rituals provide a way for participants to react against the crass materialism of more traditional winter holidays.

Festivus is clearly inauthentic. It’s a holiday based around telling your friends and family how they’ve let you down in the past year and then wrestling. These traditions and rituals are codified in an episode of Seinfeld, a pop cultural product. Festivus makes no claims at religious authenticity or spiritual truth. But nonetheless, it does authentic religious work by creating a sense of purpose and belonging for people. The knowing inauthenticity and meaninglessness of Festivus’ religious claim is a way to do authentic religious work for people who are let down by more traditional, ‘authentic’ religious holidays.

Fake Religions and Authentic Results

            Throughout Kumare and the episode of Seinfeld regarding Festivus, the question of whether or not a fake religion or tradition can yield authentic results is continuously explored. Even though the initial emergences of the Kumare teachings and Festivus is done out of jest, both manage to take on their own meanings that seem authentically religious. In Kumare, despite the teachings being fake, people really buy into the philosophies and gain some tangible benefits that an authentic religion would provide. Within the show of Seinfeld, Festivus does take on the form of a religious holiday, as there are set traditions (aluminum pole, airing of grievances, feats of strength) that have to be followed every year. These all seem fake though. What comes out of Festivus that seems authentic is the following it attains outside of the Seinfeld universe. It has amassed a real following of people that believe in Festivus and the message it sends. Atheists often rally around it as a counter-culture to religious holidays, and others view it as a symbol against the commercialism of holidays. Even though the birth of Festivus is fake, the results seem authentic because it brings people together who have a certain set of beliefs. As David Chidester puts it, both the Kumare teachings and Festivus are examples of, “…authentic fakes, doing real religious work in forging a community, focusing desire, and facilitating exchange in ways that look just like religion” (Preface, viii). Is it even fair to label somethings as a "fake" if it is causing authentic results?