Holidays are a vital and an enjoyable part of society and of our culture. There are many different holidays that people enjoy celebrating with friends and family. There are religious, historical, and cultural holidays to celebrate throughout the year. Did you know that there are holidays in all four seasons? Passover, Purim, and Easter are celebrated in the springtime and Fourth of July and Flag Day are celebrated in the summertime. Did you know that even though Memorial Day is a springtime holiday, it is though to be the unofficial start of summer? In addition, did you know that even through Labor Day is celebrated in the autumn; it is thought to be the unofficial end of summer. There are Jewish and Christian holidays and there are American and international holidays; Americans celebrate Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July but people who live in England don’t celebrate either Fourth of July or Thanksgiving. However, they probably do enjoy eating turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and both pumpkin and apple pie at some point in the year. Americans and British people might not both celebrate Fourth of July and Thanksgiving; however they both celebrate Easter and Christmas. Jewish people celebrate both Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July but Jews don’t celebrate either Christmas or Easter. However, Jews do celebrate Passover, Hanukkah, and Sukkot just to name a few Jewish holidays that are celebrated yearly. In fact, let’s talk a bit about the Jewish holiday called Sukkot or Feast of Tabernacles.

Sukkot is a Hebrew word that translates into English as either “booths or “tabernacles.” The Jewish holiday of Sukkot is one of the three pilgrim festivals. Sukkot is known as Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot is a Biblical pilgrimage festival that takes place in the autumn around late September to late October. In 2008, Sukkot will be celebrated staring at sunset on October 13th and ending on October 20th at sunset. Sukkot is a Jewish holiday that lasts for seven days and on each of these seven days, the Torah requires Jews to take four kinds of plants and to grasp and to shake them in a particular manner. These types of plants are called the date palm frond, the bough of a myrtle tree, a willow branch, and a lemon like citrus fruit. Most people use an actual lemon for the fourth kind of plant. These plants are generally sold in Jewish communities the week before Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles. Did you know that some rabbis believe that the four types of plants that are used for Sukkot are meant t6o reflect the four types of plants that grow in Israel? The four types of plants that grow in Israel are those plants that have a good taste and a pleasant fragrance, those plants that have a good taste and no fragrance, and plants that have a pleasant fragrance and no taste, and those plants that have neither taste nor any fragrance.

During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, Jews are supposed to make a temporary hut where they will eat there meals entertain guests, relax, and possibly sleep. The sukkah can be built out of any type of material, although the material that it is created out of should be strong. Therefore, a sukkah shouldn’t be made out of clay. Its roof must be built from any material and people must be able to see part of the sky through the roof of a sukkah. The inside of a sukkah can be either sparsely decorated or lavishly decorated. Please have a happy and bountiful Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot.