I have been to many bonfires, including Litvishe, Israeli, American,. dati, chassidic, sefardic, etc. and it seems to me that pretty much the chassidim have their tradition of what to do and everyone else just stands around looking at the bonfire, talk with their friends sings for a few minutes and then roast marshmallows. For most non-hassidic communities, the bonfire is really just a nice social event.
I have found that the only people who seem to "know what to do" around a Lag b'Omer bonfire are chassidim, and that is probably because the Lag bOmer bonfire is really a chassidishe minhag that was started, or at least made popular, by the "Arizal". We don't find any serious discussion in Chazal or halacha about the bonfire until the Ari, and even after there is very little about it.
My question is, how did what is so clearly a chassidishe minhag become so prevalent among all sectors of Judaism today?
In general I am all for more social events in the frum community. We have very few times to interact with our friends. Most shuls don't make regular kiddushes on Shabbos, except for a simcha. General social interaction is frowned upon as people are encouraged to spend their free time going to shiurim and learning torah, along with dissuading situations that are mixed gender. "Going out" in the frum community is also difficult because of limitations, such as not going to movies or kol isha at theater shows, mixed swimming and the like. So the bonfire seems to be a relatively low-key social interaction event and I think that is fine - but that is not really the intention when the shuls or communities plan such an event - it just happens that way because people don't really know what else to do, or feel uncomfortable doing it.
So, how did such a clearly chassidishe minhag become so prevalent among the non-chaasidishe communities?
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