Jewish customs and where they came from

Question

::The accusations regarding the new customs from "idol worship and paganism" is a standard canard of the secularists in their attack on the mesorah and kabbala.:: Man, Lazer, you are pretty dumb. Let's make a list of all the new customs the hasidim dreamt up. You tell me if you think they are in the "mesorah or kabbalah" 1 - Wachnacht. For those uninitiated, this involves putting a knife under the pillow of an 8-day old infant boy for the purpose of scaring off ghouls. 2 - Red string. Madanna also thinks it is from the mesorah. Only they had them in North Africa first. 3 - Upshirun. Sure this could be from the kabbalah, though I would like to know why it doesn't appear in any Jewish sources until 200 years after the documented appearence of Muslims doing the same thing oin Israel. Could the Jews of Israel copied the Muslims? Nah. And could the hasidim, who looked to Isarel for minhagim when they were desperately trying to differentiate themselves from establishment european jewry have copied the Jews of Israel? nah, that's farfestched. I'm sure its in the kabbalah, and its just a coincidence the Muslims were doing it first. 4 - Bonfires. A very Jewish custom, if by Jewish custom you mean "something Catholics did first." It's true: this is how catholics honored their saints going back as early as the 12th century. HEY LAZAR, did those catholics have kabbalah, too?!?! 5 - Lighting candles in shteebles for yartzeits. The first time I saw this (it was lag b'omer and there was a whole tray of canfles out for the mispallelim to light) I thought I had entered a church. Then I did some research, and wouldn't you know it! Though yartzeit candles IN THE HOME are jewish, the catholics were lighting candles in church to honor saints before we brought the custom to the shteebles. But I know: it's in the kabbalah, that coincidently the non-Jews were mikaven. 6 - Praying to the dead. The rishonim and achronim say everywhere that this is 100 percent not allowed, yet Jews do it. Why? Who are they copying? Where did they get this idea? the kabbalah? But the non-kabbalah sages rule against it. Things that make you go hmmmm. 7 - Rebbe as go between with God. The great thing about Judaism is that you can pray to god directly. So why do hasidim ask their Rebbe to do it for them? It could have started in the olden days when chasidim couldn't read or speak Hebrew (yiddish surprise! is not hebrew) or it could be a direct copy of the dominant religion in those neighborhoods. You decide. I could do this all day, but lets get some feedback on the first 7. If you want more, I will deliver.