December 23 is not just Christmas Eve Eve; it’s a holiday in its own right. More than one, in fact. It’s the Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca City, Mexico, Tibb’s Eve in Newfoundland, Tom Bawcock’s Eve in Cornwall, and Festivus everywhere.
Festivus first became widely recognized (in the US, anyway) in 1997 when it was featured on an episode of the comedy TV show Seinfeld. The holiday had already existed for over thirty years, though, because it was a family tradition for Dan O’Keefe, one of the writers for Seinfeld.
Festivus was created in 1966 by Daniel O’Keefe, Dan’s father. He wrote Stolen Lightning: The Social Theory of Magic, which explores how rituals become significant and keep their relevance. He created Festivus partly because, as he said, “the word just popped into my head.” The holiday was always intended to be a noncommercial celebration, but at first didn’t occur near the Christmas holiday — it was a celebrated on the anniversary of Daniel’s first date with Deborah, who he married (and was Dan’s mother). It became a noncommercial alternative to Christmas when Dan and the other Seinfeld writers revised it for the show.
They revised some other details too. The Seinfeld version of Festivus is focused around the “Festivus pole,” which is simply an unadorned pole affixed vertically. The O’Keefe version of Festivus also had a focus, but it was not a pole. It was a clock hidden in a bag nailed to a wall. It didn’t matter which clock it was, nor did the bag matter. Daniel never revealed the significance of the clock in the bag nailed to the wall. According to his son, who asked, he simply replied “that’s not for you to know.”
Seinfeld made Festivus popular enough for Dan to publish the book The Real Festivus. He also appeared on CNN in 2013, talking about the family tradition. Dan added some of the more amusing Festivus traditions for the Seinfeld version, including the “airing of grievances,” during which everyone at the Festivus dinner complains about everyone else, and the “feats of strength,” which happens after dinner, when the head of the household is challenged to a wrestling match.
Festivus is really celebrated by some, and there have been several books published about it, and including references to it. “Official” Festivus poles have been put up in Florida and Wisconsin (at least), and a petition was created in 2022 to make Festivus a national holiday in the US. That hasn’t happened (yet), but as the petition says, Festivus is at least as worthy of official recognition as National Bagel Day or Boss’s Day.
If you find yourself in Oaxaca, Mexico, on December 23, what you need is not a Festivus pole or a clock in a bag; you need a radish. They grow very large radishes in that area, and they’re carved into all manner of shapes to celebrate the Night of the Radishes. You have to act fast though; carved radishes wilt pretty fast.
If you’re in Mousehole, Cornwall (in England) instead, you can enjoy some Stargazy pie instead of radishes. Or perhaps “enjoy” is not the right word; Stargazy pie is a mixture of fish, eggs, and potatoes with the fish heads sticking out. It’s in memory of Tom Bawcock, who (according to local myth) braved a terrible storm in his fishing boat in order to catch fish to ease a famine in the village. It’s not entirely clear when this happened (or if something like it happened at all), but the festival of Tom Bawcock’s Eve has been celebrated for well over a century in Mousehole.
December 23 is much simpler and less food-related in Sweden. All you need to do is fly the Swedish flag in celebration of Queen Silvia’s birthday. She’s been the Queen of Sweden since 1976.
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