Sukkot is a wonderfully fun holiday that celebrates the harvest and recalls the days of Moses when the Children of Israel traveled through the desert.  When they stopped to rest, the Israelites built sukkot as temporary shelter.

On the festival of Sukkot, we build a Sukkah for our family.  Sukkot (plural of sukkah) are made of wood or canvas.  It has three walls and a roof made of wooden slats.  The slats are covered with corn stalks or tree branches and are spread out so that one can see the sky through the roofing material.

Ideally, we are to live in the sukkah during the festival, but most of us simply try to eat meals there.  It is a great time to invite family and friends over.

In addition to the sukkah, the lulav and the etrog are symbols of the holiday.  The lulav is a palm branch, but when we think of the lulav we generally think of the lulav bouquet, which is a palm branch, two willow branches and three myrtle branches.  The next symbol, the etrog is a citron (a fruit that is like a big lemon).  Every morning of Sukkot, we should take the etrog in our right hand and the lulav in the left, recite a blessing and wave the lulav north, east, west, south, up and down to indicate that God is everywhere.

Fun Ideas:

Have a Sukkah building party (remember to have lots of construction paper on hand for your children to draw and hang up paper fruit)

Mom's night out in the Sukkah  (hang twinkle lights for a pretty lighting effect at night and share a bottle of wine)

Snacks in the Sukkah (invite the kids from the bus stop over for cookies and juice after school)

Pizza in the Hut (from my synagogue's youth group--order pizza for an easy party in the sukkah)

Progressive Sukkah Dinner (more than one sukkah in your neighborhood?  Have a progressive dinner as neighbors and friends walk from sukkah to sukkah for various dinner courses)

Sleep in the Sukkah (grab your sleeping bags and sleep under the stars--imagine what it would have been like to travel with Moses)

 

Food:

My friend Laurie told me you should eat one-pot meals during Sukkot, because who wants to schlep alot of dishes from the kitchen to the sukkah?

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

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