in Judaism we do a lot of things that seem kooky. sometimes even mitzvos, but especially minhagim. Off the top of my head I can right away think of the minhag of klopping aravos, people who whip themselves before yom kippur, kapparos as pretty kooky, especially to an outside observer.
here is one that definitely would rank up there as one of the kookier looking minhagim, though it does look like it would be fun to participate in.
They are throwing things at the guy lighting the menorah in shul.
I dont know anything about it, but I was told a reason for the minhag and that is, to distract the focus from the fellow lighting, so that he should not actually fulfill his obligation to light, but can then go home and light at home for his obligation. Halachic sources actually deal with this issue and conclude that lighting in shul does not fulfill one's personal obligation of lighting, so this seems like all this raucus in shul would not really be necessary for this purpose.
If anybody has any knowledge about this custom, I'd be happy to be made more knowledgeable..
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