I. Chukat HaGoyim - Prohibition against Acting like non-Jews
You shall not follow the practices of the nation that I am driving out before you. For it is because they did all these things that I abhorred them...
(15) My son, do not set out with them; Keep your feet from their path.
(משלי א טו): "בני! אל תלך בדרך אתם" - אלו אומות העולם, שנאמר בהם (ויקרא כ כג): "ולא תלכו בחוקות הגוי" "מנע רגלך מנתיבתם" - שלא לעבוד עבודה זרה שלהם, שנאמר (שמות לד יד): "כי לא תשחתוה לאל אחר". (משלי א טז): "כי רגליהם לרע ירוצו" - זו עבודה זרה "וימהרו לשפוך דם" - ללמדך שכל מי שעובד עבודה זרה כאילו שופך דם.
Proverbs 1:15 "My son, do not set out with them; Keep your feet from their path."
These are the nations of the world, of whom it is stated, "you shall not follow their practices." "Keep your feet from their path" - that you shall not serve their foreign gods.
To not follow the practices of the gentiles: ... And the content of the commandment is that we not behave like them in our clothing and our matters. And it is like they said in Sifra, Achrei Mot, Chapter 13:8, "'And do not follow their practices - that you not follow their mores with things that are fixed for them, such as theaters, circuses and amphitheaters" - and all of these are types of frivolity that they would do in their gatherings, when they gathered to do craziness, licentiousness and idolatry....
(א) שלא ללבוש כמלבושי עובדי כוכבים. ובו ג' סעיפים:
אין הולכין בחוקות העובדי כוכבים (ולא מדמין להם) (טור בשם הרמב"ם) ולא ילבש מלבוש המיוחד להם ולא יגדל ציצת ראשו כמו ציצת ראשם ולא יגלח מהצדדין ויניח השער באמצע ולא יגלח השער מכנגד פניו מאוזן לאוזן ויניח הפרע ולא יבנה מקומות כבנין היכלות של עבודת כוכבים כדי שיכנסו בהם רבים כמו שהם עושים : הגה אלא יהא מובדל מהם במלבושיו ובשאר מעשיו (שם) וכל זה אינו אסור אלא בדבר שנהגו בו העובדי כוכבים לשם פריצות כגון שנהגו ללבוש מלבושים אדומים והוא מלבוש שרים וכדומה לזה ממלבושי הפריצות או בדבר שנהגו למנהג ולחוק ואין טעם בדבר דאיכא למיחש ביה משום דרכי האמורי ושיש בו שמץ עבודת כוכבים מאבותיהם אבל דבר שנהגו לתועלת כגון שדרכן שכל מי שהוא רופא מומחה יש לו מלבוש מיוחד שניכר בו שהוא רופא אומן מותר ללובשו וכן שעושין משום כבוד או טעם אחר מותר (מהרי"ק שורש פ"ח) לכן אמרו שורפין על המלכים ואין בו משום דרכי האמורי (ר"ן פ"ק דעבודת כוכבים):
One [i.e., a Jew] should not follow the customs of non-Jews (nor should one try to resemble them). One should not wear clothing that is particular to them [i.e., their culture]; one should not grow one’s hair in the middle of one’s head [like they do]; ...one should not build places [i.e., buildings]—like the non-Jews’ temples—so that large groups of people will enter them, like [non-Jews] do. RAMA: Rather, one [i.e., a Jew] should be distinct from them [i.e., non-Jews] in one’s manner of dress and in all of one’s actions. But all of this [i.e., these restrictions] apply only to things that non-Jews do for the sake of licentiousness. For example, they are accustomed to wearing red clothing, which is official/princely clothing, and other clothing that is similarly immodest. [These restrictions also apply] to things that they are accustomed to doing because of a custom or rule that does not have a[ny underlying] reason, out of concern that [a Jew who does such things will follow the] “ways of the Amorites,” and that it has the blemish of [i.e., is tainted by] idol worship inherited from their ancestors. But things that they are accustomed to doing for a useful purpose—such as their custom for expert doctors to wear particular clothing so that the doctors will be recognized as specialists—one is permitted to wear [such clothing]. Similarly, things that are done out of respect or another reason, it is permitted [for one to do such things].
---> This seems to be articulating some general principles; in order to permit engaging in conduct that might have pagan origins:
A. it may not currently be a licentious form of celebration
AND
B. one must show one of four things:
- The debated activity has a secular origin or value.
- The conduct the individuals engage in can be rationally explained independent of the gentile holiday or event.
- The pagan origins are so deeply hidden that they have disappeared, and the celebrations can be attributed to some secular source or reason.
- The activities memorialized are actually consistent with the Jewish tradition.
(from. R. Michael Broyde, "Is New Year's Kosher?")
II. Other Halachic and General Jewish Value Considerations
Are there other Jewish values that might apply here?
- Derech Eretz, being good members of the community?
- Mipnei Eivah, fear of retribution?
III. A Comparable Case: New Year's Celebrations
"New Year's Day", Wikipedia
The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward. This suggests that New Year’s celebrations are founded on pagan traditions. Some have suggested this occurred in 153 BC, when it was stipulated that the two annual consuls (after whose names the years were identified) entered into office on that day, though no consensus exists on the matter. Dates in March, coinciding with the spring equinox, or commemorating the Annunciation of Jesus, along with a variety of Christian feast dates were used throughout the Middle Ages, though calendars often continued to display the months in columns running from January to December.
R. Moshe Isserles, Darchei Moshe YD 148 (16th cent.)
It is written in the Terumat Hadeshen 195 that even nowadays one who wants to send [gifts] on the eighth day after Christmas which is called New Years should send such [gifts] during the day before [December 31st] and not on the day of the holiday, itself. And if the day before the holiday falls out on Shabbat, one may send on the day of the holiday, itself as there is a matter of hatred [eiva] if one sends later than that or more before then.
R. Moshe Feinstein Iggerot Moshe (Even Haezer 2:13).
The first day of the year for them [January 1] . . . is not prohibited according to law, but pious people [baalei nefesh] should be strict.
R. Moshe Feinstein Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 4:11:4 (20th cent.)
Thus, it is obvious in my opinion, that even in a case where something would be considered a prohibited Gentile custom, if many people do it for reasons unrelated to their religion or law, but rather because it is pleasurable to them, there is no prohibition of imitating Gentile custom. So too, it is obvious that if Gentiles were to make a religious law to eat a particular item that is good to eat, halacha would not prohibit eating that item. So too, any item of pleasure in the world cannot be prohibited merely because Gentiles do so out of religious observance.
IV. Hilchot Mardi Gras
Eliza Barclay, "Is That A Plastic Baby Jesus In My Cake?" - 2/17/12, NPR
The custom of eating a wreath-shaped or oval cake on January 6th to honor the Three Kings goes back to Old World Europe, most notably France and Spain. At some point the French and the Spanish brought the cake to the Americas, where it seems to have been most heartily adopted in New Orleans, Mexico and some other parts of Latin America.
Historians say that sometime in the late 19th century, the Twelfth Night Revelers, a New Orleans social group that hosted the first Mardi Gras ball of the season, took up the custom of hiding a bean (later replaced by a pecan or a jeweled ring) inside the cake. According to the Times-Picayune Creole Cookbook, the lucky finder of the treasure would then be crowned king or queen of the ball.
The big king cake revolution came along in the 1940s, thanks to a baker named Donald Entringer and a chance encounter. His bakery, McKenzie's, was one of the biggest and most famous commercial bakeries in 20th century New Orleans. By 1950, king cake had become such a fixture of the Mardi Gras season, served over and over between King Day and Fat Tuesday, that people increasingly turned to commercial bakeries like McKenzie's to source their cakes.
One day Entringer was approached by a traveling salesman who had with him little porcelain dolls from France of a size that would fit in a dollhouse. "He had a big overrun on them, and so he said to Entringer, 'How about using these in a king cake,'" says Tooker. "That sort of entranced them, and he began baking these porcelain dolls into the king cake."
Entringer got permission from the health department to bake the dolls into the cakes, the Times Picayune reports.
After a while Entringer ran out of porcelain dolls. So he went down to the French Quarter, where he found the little plastic king cake baby that we know today from an importer. "And so little plastic babies became the absolute positive rule."
"Mardi Gras", Wikipedia
Some think Mardi Gras may be linked with the ancient Roman pagan celebrations of spring and fertility such as Saturnalia, which dates back to 133–31 BC. This celebration honored the god of agriculture, Saturn. It was observed in mid-December, before the sowing of winter crops. It was a week-long festival when work and business came to a halt. Schools and courts of law closed, and the normal social patterns were suspended....
The festival is more commonly associated with Christian tradition. In the Gospel of Matthew the biblical Magi (also called the 'Three Wise Men' or 'Three Kings') visited Jesus with gifts containing gold, frankincense, and myrrh. So on the twelfth day of Christmas, Christians celebrate the feast of Epiphany, a celebration of Jesus coming for more than just the Jews, as even Gentile magi were allowed to see him. This begins the Carnival celebration which continues until the day before Ash Wednesday. The culmination of this celebration overlapped with the beginning of Lent. Early Christians believed that during the Lenten season (the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, not including Sundays), Christians should deprive themselves of anything (especially foods) that brought joy so that they might understand better the trials that Jesus faced leading up to his death on Good Friday. Thus, on the Tuesday before Lent and the last day of Epiphany, Christians would celebrate with a feast of their favorite foods to tide them over the coming weeks.
These feasts, which first were only meant for Christians, were expanded so that Christians would celebrate with their neighbors and friends. Slowly, feasts like Shrove Tuesday became public celebrations and adapted many names and traditions as they spread.
While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition...
The first Mardi Gras parade held in New Orleans is recorded to have taken place in 1837. The tradition in New Orleans expanded to the point that it became synonymous with the city in popular perception, and embraced by residents of New Orleans beyond those of French or Catholic heritage.
