Today is Festivus, the bizarre Christmas-alternate holiday which seems to be gaining in real-world popularity, though many foolishly believe it was invented by “Seinfeld’s” Frank Costanza. I believed that too, until I read Allen Salkin’s fascinating article in The New York Times about the holiday’s true provenance:

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. …

Both Dan O’Keefe and his son bless the variations. The original Festivus was constantly in flux.

“It was entirely more peculiar than on the show,” the younger Mr. O’Keefe said from the set of the sitcom “Listen Up,” where he is now a writer. There was never a pole, but there were airings of grievances into a tape recorder and wrestling matches between Daniel and his two brothers, among other rites.

“There was a clock in a bag,” said Mr. O’Keefe, 36, adding that he does not know what it symbolized.

“Most of the Festivi had a theme,” he said. “One was, ‘Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?’ Another was, ‘Too easily made glad?'”

Read the whole shebang.