INEXPLICABLE AND TOTALLY EXPLAINABLE
Freddiesgiving: A Holiday for Best Friends, Champions, and Killer Queens
We formally invite you and your best friends to a Friendsgiving fête of champions, bohemians, and killer queens.
Welcome to a crazy little thing called Freddiesgiving.
Sean, Cathleen, Sydni, Gabby, and Liza celebrate the third Freddiesgiving with Freddie Mercury and Freddie Mercury 'staches.
What is Freddiesgiving?
A better, more Freddie Mercury-centric Friendsgiving. It is a mentality, a pursuit, a way of existence.
“While Freddiesgiving is a celebration of honor and remembrance, it is also a day to wear a fake mustache. There is a sort of whimsical gaiety in the hearts of the celebrators when a small piece of pancake gets wedged in between your cupid’s bow and scratchy dollar store mustache. An aura, or lack thereof, of a metaphysical awareness that Freddie Mercury is there in the room, right beside the coat rack, is exactly that: Freddie is there. He ate a Korean fried chicken wing with me a minute before.”
-Sean Finnegan, one of the founding Freddiesgiving members, on Freddiesgiving
"Don't Stop Me Now" plays off-camera.
How Do I Celebrate Freddiesgiving?
Here’s a checklist:
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Wear something Freddie Mercury might wear or like. If you’re still confused, then don a white t-shirt and jeans. Ta-da.
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Bring a Freddie-approved dish. Keep reading for suggestions.
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A ready-Freddie willingness to dance.
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Celebrate near Thanksgiving when other lesser folk host “Friendsgivings.” Freddiesgiving, however, is a timeless day and can be celebrated whenever you and your best friends are willing.
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Play Queen music. “Best Friend” is, of course, mandatory on the playlist. If you need some suggestions, here’s our personal Freddiesgiving playlist.
What Should I Bring to Freddiesgiving?
Anything Freddie Mercury would like.
I Don't Know Freddie Mercury Personally. What Would Freddie Mercury Like?
We once thought we didn't know Freddie Mercury personally. How wrong we were! If you celebrate Freddiesgiving with people who inspire you, you've practically cut cake with Freddie himself! The spirit of Freddiesgiving is intertwined with Freddie Mercury's spirit.
So what would our friend Freddie like? This is open to your creative interpretation. One Freddiesgiving, we decided to be technical and Google Freddie Mercury’s favorite foods. We were underwhelmed. So we’ve separated the facts from fantasy. Freddiesgiving food is anything you THINK Freddie Mercury would like. Don’t verify online, just go with what’s in your heart. For example, two Freddiesgiving participants were sick one year. We added (the best) cough drops, Fisherman's Friends, to the tablescape. Freddie would've adored that.
Pictured Right: For the third Freddisegiving, our tablescape was spread with fairy lights, paper bag turkey leg gift bags, and stick-on Freddie Mercury mustaches.
Pictured Left: How I imagine Freddie and his friends would react to our Freddiesgiving layout.
Photo: Peter Röshler © Mercury Songs Ltd
The First Freddiesgiving
Freddiesgiving 2018
Freddie on a regular Tuesday
Cathleen, Gabby, Liza, and Sean gathered before Thanksgiving break 2018 in Cathleen and Gabby’s freshman-year dorm. Each brought different types of food Freddie might approve of. Whole Foods blueberry scones, donuts, and Korean fried chicken. They drank tea out of fun paper cups with different cutout animals. They wore string lights around their necks. These were not only Freddie-level spectacular; they were also contraband. It was technically against the student guidelines to have battery-operated fairy lights in a dorm. Cathleen and Gabby didn’t really care about flagrantly defying these rules because there were far bigger issues with the residents on their floors. For example, someone created their own makeshift Juul, which, quite frankly, sounds like a far bigger fire hazard than Cathleen’s twinkly fairy lights. They also wore these festive blinking glasses Cathleen's mom insisted she would have an occasion for.
It is rumored that the ghost of Freddie Mercury himself even made an appearance that night. Sean alleges that he saw the shadowy outline of a man in a hat in the corner of Cathleen’s side of her and Gabby’s freshman-year dorm during the first Freddiesgiving. We believe this is a good omen, demonstrating Freddie gave his blessing for Freddiesgiving.
The four friends spent the evening dancing to Queen’s Best Hits and sipping tea. It was the best first Freddiesgiving in the history of Freddiesgivings.
So how did Freddiesgiving even begin?
The Freddiesgiving Origin Story
Some time on the subway ride from the Union Square AMC theater in New York City, stood 17-year-old Liza and Jack (before they began dating!) and 18-year-old Cathleen and Gabby. Cathleen probably wasn’t standing--she was likely clinging to the pole for dear life. Gabby was probably coasting and in her subway-surf stance. Liza, however, was in some in-between pose, so when the subway lurched, she stumbled forward. A man who resembled Will.i.am reached out to her. To this day, if you asked Liza who saved her life on the subway, she will say “Will.i.am.”
Actually, this is irrelevant to the Freddiesgiving origin story, and I am digressing. I only bring it up because it’s atmospheric, and I want you to feel like you were in the moments leading up to *the* moment. Also, I don’t remember it as well as I should, and I’m hoping typing all of this out will jog my memory. All I know is Liza and Cathleen were talking about Friendsgiving as a concept on that subway ride, and Cathleen said that she didn’t really like the TV show Friends. (Cathleen is, and always will be, a How I Met Your Mother zealot to her core.) She lamented that any Friendsgiving is an homage to Friends, and Liza agreed.
They were all barreling through the underground tunnels either on their way from or going toward the AMC theater to watch Bohemian Rhapsody, the biopic on Freddie Mercury. Cathleen said something along the lines of having a Freddiesgiving instead of a Friendsgiving. Liza built on it, and Gabby offered our dorm for the first Freddiesgiving.
And the rest is history.
"Ay-oh!"
-Freddie at Live-Aid and Liza at Freddiesgiving
Freddiesgiving is a holiday we hold dear to our hearts. It is an honor to share it with you today, and we hope you will be kind stewards of this tradition born on a New York subway and practiced internationally. (Liza FaceTimed us from London for Freddiesgiving 2019.)
Peter Still/Redferns
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Pictured above: Quadruplets.
Now spot the photo that wasn't taken at our 2021 Freddiesgiving. I know, this is tricky!
