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RFFM.org NEWS Springfield, IL -- Earlier this week, an 18 year old man from Springfield was allowed to put up a symbol at the State Capitol Building Rotunda in recognition of a fictional holiday. Michael Tennenhouse applied for and received a permit from the office of Jesse White, Illinois' Secretary of State. White's office is responsible for issuing permits to groups who desire to participate in a public forum inside Illinois' state Capitol building. Tennenhouse claims he sought permission from White's office to honor something called "Festivus" which was a story line from an episode of the Jerry Seinfeld show....

NEW HAVEN, CT - In an effort to recognize the diverse traditions of the holiday season, the City has installed a Festivus pole in the Market Street square. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. With the addition of this new holiday centerpiece, the square is now thought to be the most diverse public display of late fall holiday symbols in the country...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - State officials, besieged by requests for more seasonal displays at the state Capitol, have approved several more - including a "Festivus" display honoring a faux holiday popularized by TV comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The new display requests come on top of an anti-religion placard, a Christmas tree and a Christian nativity scene erected earlier this week and a pro-religion sign added Friday. The state General Administration, which runs the state Capitol building, have OK'd four of the requests so far: - On Saturday, Dec. 6: A balloon nativity shelter from a private citizen. - On Sunday, Dec. 7:...

NEW HAVEN, CT (TDR) - In an effort to recognize the diverse traditions of the holiday season, the City has installed a Festivus pole in the Market Street square. A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Saturday afternoon. With the addition of this new holiday centerpiece, the square is now thought to be the most diverse public display of late fall holiday symbols in the country...

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The putting up of a nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall has prompted a tongue-in-cheek request from a suburban man for permission to display a Festivus pole on the overhang of the building's northwest entrance.

This is a parody about retailers eliminating the word Christmas because someone might be offended. http://www.citizenlink.org/Stoplight/A000005834.cfm?eafref=1

A mere 1.6 percent of Americans observe it, and it's been criticized as separatist and contrived, but Kwanzaa may be the perfect holiday for all Americans to rally around. So "Habari Gani!" Today is the third day of Kwanzaa. If you just took a second glance at my picture and decided "she's playing," I assure you I am not. Maulana Karenga, the college professor who founded Kwanzaa 40 years ago to encourage black Americans to reconnect with their African heritage, says all are welcome at the table. And why not? Africa, scientists say, is the motherland of us all. Christmas...

Kwanzaa -- the holiday began in 1967 by Marxist Ron Karenga, who would later serve time for felony assault for viciously torturing two women, then become chairman of the black studies department at California State University, Long Beach -- is this week. Do you know anybody who celebrates it? Yes No. I think more people celebrate Festivus.

Pauline Foster's advice to her 11-year-old daughter, Nanyamka Graham, was simple: Shake it and smile. The two Lauderhill residents were part of the nearly 100 performers at the Kwanzaa celebration at Broward County's Main Library in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday night. Kwanzaa, an African-American holiday that celebrates family, community and culture, began Tuesday and ends Jan 1. Each day focuses on a different principle, and Tuesday's was unity. This year is the holiday's 40th anniversary. ''It's a family gathering,'' said 11-year-old performer Tameka Lewis, decked out in a bright pink costume. ``We learn about our black brothers and sisters and ancestors.''...

Learn about Kwanzaa, it's worth celebrating By Akilah Monifa COMMENTARY I CELEBRATE Kwanzaa, a holiday that honors family, community and culture. My family and I have done so for years. But five years after Sept. 11, in this climate of religious and cultural intolerance in America, I can sympathize with Muslims here who feel like outsiders. Many white Americans are suspicious and fearful of Kwanzaa. Like other holidays that are celebrated predominantly by people of color -- such as Ramadan, Juneteenth, Holi, Hispanic Heritage Month -- Kwanzaa ought to be an opportunity for those who are unfamiliar with it to...

'Seinfeld' spurs Festivus pole sales By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer December 21, 2006 at 5:43 pm Kevin Campanella hates buying and receiving Christmas presents that he says inevitably disappoint. This year, no such worries. Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode. Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends. In protest of Christmas' commercialism, character Frank Costanza...

Sales of Festivus poles grow for 'Seinfeld' holiday By DINESH RAMDE The Associated Press MILWAUKEE -- Kevin Campanella hates buying and receiving Christmas presents that he says inevitably disappoint. This year, no such worries. Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode. Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends. In protest of Christmas' commercialism, character Frank Costanza puts...

Please share your Festivus stories. The happy memories and sad.

Festivus just isn't the same this year for self-professed "Seinfeld" fanatic Gov. Jim Doyle. In fact, Doyle said he won't be recognizing the made-up holiday after Michael Richards, aka Kramer, unleashed a string of racial slurs at black patrons during a recent comedy club appearance. "Probably like a lot of people, I'm still sorting out my feelings about it all," Doyle said Friday. "It's pretty hard for me to watch the show right now."That says a lot coming from a governor whose aides are known to watch "Seinfeld" reruns in their spare time so they can keep up with Doyle's...

Michael Richards exploded in anger as he performed at a famous L.A. comedy club last Friday, hurling racial epithets that left the crowd gasping, and TMZ has obtained exclusive video of the ugly incident.

No. 1 retailer has decided to abandon its generic 'Happy Holidays' greeting in favor of 'Merry Christmas.' NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart has told its employees that it's OK to once again greet shoppers by saying "Merry Christmas" this holiday season instead of the generic "Happy Holidays." CNN confirmed that Wal-Mart will announce Thursday that it plans to use the phrase "Merry Christmas" in products and around its stores this holiday season. The announcement comes a year after religious groups such as The American Family Association and The Catholic League boycotted retailers including Wal-Mart last holiday season for excluding the...

CHICAGO, Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The largest annual Kwanzaa celebration of African-American culture in the United States began Monday at Malcolm X College in Chicago. Ayoka Samuels, a consultant for the college's Kwanzaa committee said a major misconception is that about the seven-day festival is that it's meant to be "the black Christmas," the Chicago Sun-Times said. Samuels said many who celebrate it do substitute it for Christmas, and if gifts are exchanged, they must be either educational or a symbol of African heritage. Maulana Ron Karenga, now a professor of black studies at California State University, Long Beach, created...

(AP) Kwanzaa the Lion Celebrates Birthday Dec 26 2005 WACO, Texas The seven-day holiday of Kwanzaa began Monday, but the celebration started early at the Cameron Park Zoo. A South African lion named "Kwanzaa" celebrated his first birthday, and the weekend party included 10 pounds of horse meat fashioned into a cake, whipped cream and a carrot representing a candle. Kwanzaa was born at the zoo on Christmas Eve 2004, and now weighs more than 115 pounds. Zookeeper Manda Butler said Kwanzaa will be on display through January as crews prepare to send him to the zoo in Birmingham, Ala....

BLACKS IN AMERICA have suffered an endless series of insults and degradations, the latest of which goes by the name of Kwanzaa. Ron Karenga (aka Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga) invented the seven-day feast (Dec. 26-Jan. 1) in 1966, branding it a black alternative to Christmas. The idea was to celebrate the end of what he considered the Christmas-season exploitation of African Americans. According to the official Kwanzaa Web site -- as opposed, say, to the Hallmark Cards Kwanzaa site -- the celebration was designed to foster "conditions that would enhance the revolutionary social change for the masses of Black Americans"...

Happy Festivus Everyone! For those that don't know what Festivus is, here's a source: Wikipedia While it was actually invented (like Kwanzaa) in 1966 in a Reader's Digest column it was made popular by an episode of Seinfeld. The Festivus Dinner you'll have to take care of yourself, but I've provided a festivus Pole: The feats of strength and airing of grievances will be addressed downthread.

ALTERNATIVE CELEBRATIONS: Pole for the holidays Celebrating the holidays with a diverse group of friends can get tricky. That's where Festivus, the "holiday for the rest of us," comes in. Invented in 1966 by a Reader's Digest editor but made popular through a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode, the fictional celebration has been brought to life by fervent supporters across the country - including Clarkston native Blake Coe. According to the "Seinfeld" episode, Festivus is celebrated on Dec. 23 and is marked by a tinsel-free aluminum pole, feats of strength - like wrestling - and the airing of grievances, during which followers...

The Kwanzaa Hoax William J. Bennetta "Anywhere we are, Us is." That looks like a line from an Amos 'N Andy show. One can easily imagine that it served as the motto of the Mystic Knights of the Sea, and that it was recited by such characters as The Kingfish, Andy Brown and Algonquin J. Calhoun. In fact, however, the line that I have quoted is the motto of a real organization -- a real organization that was originally named United Slaves but now calls itself The Organization Us (or simply Us or US). It was created some 40 years...

AgapePress) - An official with a pro-family group reports that a boycott campaign aimed at Target Stores nationwide has succeeded in attracting hundreds of thousands of consumers who say they intend to shop elsewhere during what is traditionally the busiest shopping weekend of the year. On Friday (Nov. 18) the American Family Association (AFA) launched on online boycott campaign against Target, citing the retailer's decision to ban Salvation Army kettles from their store entrances as well as the use of "Merry Christmas" in their in-store promotions and retail advertising. By the following Monday, almost 300,000 individuals had "signed" an online...

BARTOW, Fla. - When a church group put a nativity scene on public property, officials warned it might open the door to other religious - and not-so-religious - displays. They were right.       Since the nativity was erected in Polk County, displays have gone up honoring Zoroastrianism and the fake holiday Festivus, featured on the TV show ``Seinfeld.''       The Polk County Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday to permit the nativity scene to remain across the street from the courthouse, as well as to make that area a ``public forum'' open to any type of display.       But the commission insisted...

In a classic episode of Seinfeld, George Costanza is distressed to learn that his father is reviving his ersatz Christmastime holiday "Festivus," the central events of which are the Airing of Grievances and the Feats of Strength.Now The New York Times reports that Festivus is actually catching on in some circles: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. Or it could be that Festivus is the perfect secular theme for an all-inclusive...

'Festivus' Shares Space With Fla. Nativity December 22, 2004 11:59 PM EST BARTOW, Fla. - When a church group put a nativity scene on public property, officials warned it might open the door to other religious - and not-so-religious - displays. They were right. Since the nativity was erected in Polk County, displays have gone up honoring Zoroastrianism and the fake holiday Festivus, featured on the TV show "Seinfeld." The Polk County Commission voted 4-1 Wednesday to permit the nativity scene to remain across the street from the courthouse, as well as to make that area a "public forum" open...

Thursday, December 23, 2004 'A Festivus for the rest of us' starts catching on By ALLEN SALKIN THE NEW YORK TIMES Gather around the Festivus pole and listen to a tale about a real holiday made fictional and then real again, a tale that touches on philosophy, King Lear, the pool at the Chateau Marmont hotel, a paper bag with a clock inside and, oh yes, a television show about nothing. The first surprise is that all over the country, many real people are holding parties celebrating Festivus, a holiday most believe was invented on an episode of "Seinfeld" first...

Habitual watchers of "Seinfeld" reruns know that tomorrow is Festivus, the holiday for the "rest of us" created by George Costanza's father for "the airing of grievances." It's in that comic spirit that we offer a holiday grievance of our own: the perception that Christians are victims of religious persecution in America and, more specifically, their warnings of a secular conspiracy to stamp out Christmas. These complaints strike us as melodramatic. For a rising tide of evangelical believers to raise these laments is a bit like the wealthy complaining about high taxes or the Yankees about not winning the World...

GATHER around the Festivus pole and listen to a tale about a real holiday made fictional and then real again, a tale that touches on philosophy, King Lear, the pool at the Chateau Marmont hotel, a paper bag with a clock inside and, oh yes, a television show about nothing. The first surprise is that from Tampa Bay, Fla., to Washington, from Austin, Tex., to Oxford, Ohio, many real people are holding parties celebrating Festivus, a holiday most believe was invented on an episode of "Seinfeld" first broadcast the week before Christmas in 1997. "More and more people are familiar...

Festivis episode of Seinfeld ("The Break") on TBS Thursday night, 9:00PM EST.

Governor Schwarzenegger lit the state Christmas tree and ended a secular practice of calling it a "holiday tree." The governor made no mention of the name change that was in honor of the late Senator William "Pete" Knight. Schwarzenegger said at Knight's funeral in May that he would change the name back to Christmas tree. Knight had lobbied unsuccessfully to change the name after Governor Davis decided to call it a holiday tree. During the 73rd annual lighting, Schwarzenegger took on the role of "Triminator" as he helped a disabled girl trim the tree with the final ornament. The governor...

Will you spend more on Christmas/Holiday gifts this year than last year? I have seen so many polls on websites asking a very similar question but without the use the "C" word. This one does. I answered it! Hope you do too!

After countless Middle East peace initiatives involving politicians, the people behind the One Voice initiative that is set to be launched next week decided to appeal to ordinary Israeli and Palestinian citizens. Who better to appeal to average and apathetic Israelis and Palestinians than Jason Alexander, who played the ultimate average Joe, George Costanza, on the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld? Alexander is set to arrive in Israel on Monday for a series of media events and meetings designed to promote One Voice, a new diplomatic initiative that aims to poll Israelis and Palestinians over the next six-to-18 months in order...

I GUESS IT wouldn't be very Christian of me to start an argument with the driver of the car with the bumper sticker that reads "Christians aren't better, just better off." I spotted this one in a shopping center the other day and, while I'm usually just mildly amused at bumper stickers - "What if the hokeypokey really is what it's all about?" - this one about Christians being better off scraped against some sensitive nerve, probably because it's that time of year when I figure Christians are reflecting, at least for a few minutes, on what it means to...