Religious Experience or Excuse to Party?

In reviewing Bakhtin and the carnival, I couldn’t help but think back to my undergraduate days when I lived in Jerusalem, Israel. Now despite growing up in the Jewish religion, I don’t claim to be an expert on the Jewish faith or practices, nor on Israeli culture. However, based on my understanding of the carnival, I think Bakhtin would be able to see the carnival in my Israeli Purim experience.
Purim is a holiday devoted to yet another time in history when the Jews were forced to overcome some “evil-doer” that was looking to annihilate them, in this case, Haman. Traditionally, this holiday is celebrated with the reading of the Book of Esther from the Torah, followed by a celebratory meal filled with costumes, wine, and hamantaschen (triangular cookies filled with jam). As a child, this included a small carnival where I frequently went home with a goldfish in a bag.
However, my Israeli experience was truly carnivalesque. The evening did begin with a reading of the Book of Esther, at a Reformed (most liberal and relaxed) synagogue. Then the true party began. My friends and I decided to attend the “hottest” party in town, which of course, was thrown by Chabad, the absolute most religious group in town. For a mere 10 shekels ($3), we were encouraged to drink as much as possible, to the point where we couldn’t tell the difference between the “good” guy in the Purim story and the “bad” guy. Talk about carnivalesque, about celebrating the underside of tradition, the most religious group in town was literally pouring shots of vodka down the throats of non-religious American college students in the name of religion.