This week was the Jewish holiday, Sukkot. Sukkot is a 7-day holiday that is celebrated 5 days after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. This holiday is a celebration of multiple things. First, it celebrates harvest. Second, it is to honor the Israelites who wandered in the desert for 40 years after their exodus from Egypt.
On Sukkot, we build something called a Sukkah. The Sukkah almost looks like a tent and is meant to represent the tents that the Israelites inhabited during those 40 years of wandering. Every year families, especially children, look forward to building the Sukkah in their backyards or local synagogue. The Sukkah is usually decorated after being built with “harvest” type things such as crops like corn. Traditionally, one is supposed to spend as much time in the Sukkah as possible during the 7 days of Sukkot. This includes eating all meals, and even sleeping!
Another tradition that is practiced on Sukkot is shaking the lulav and the etrog. The lulav is a stack of palm and willow branches and the etrog is a fruit that looks a lot like a lemon. The lulav and etrog are each held in one hand and are shaken in 6 different directions around ones body. The purpose of this tradition is to show that God is everywhere.