OVERVIEW OF SUKKOT
Sukkot or Succoth is an 8-day festival, also known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles" or "Feast of Ingathering." It is one of the three pilgrimage festivals mentioned in the Bible. The holiday is celebrated on September 25. The word sukkot is the plural of the Hebrew sukkah, meaning booth. Jews are commanded to "dwell" in booths during the holiday. This generally means taking meals, but some sleep in the sukkah as well. There are specific rules for constructing a sukkah. .
HISTORY OF SUKKOT
Sukkot commemorates the life of the Israelites in the desert during their journey to the promised land, the Land of Israel. During their wandering in the desert they lived in booths (sukkot). The Torah directs Jews to use four species of plants to celebrate the holiday: the lulav (palm branch), the etrog (lemon-like citron), myrtle, and willow. The etrog is handled separately; the other three species are bound together and are collectively referred to as the lulav (thus the four are often called "lulav and etrog").
It was agricultural in origin; this is evident from the name the "Feast of Ingathering," from the ceremonies accompanying it, and from the season and occasion of its celebration: "At the end of the year when you gather in your labors out of the field" (Ex. 23:16); "after you have gathered in from your thrashing-floor and from your wine-press" (Deut. 16). It was a thanksgiving for the fruit harvest (comp. Judges 9:27). Coming as it did at the completion of the harvest, it was regarded as a general thanksgiving for the bounty of nature in the year that had passed.
SUKKOT TRIVIA
According to halacha (Jewish law) a sukkah requires that the top covering of branches, called s'chach, must let in, at most, half of the available sun-light, creating a majority of shade.
Source: The English Wikipedia
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