Sukkot or the Feast of Tabernacles

Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your Feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
Deuteronomy 16:13-15

The most solemn holiday of the year, Yom Kippur, has ended and there are only four days between Yom Kippur and the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, the most joyful of holidays. After we all have repented and started anew we can all rejoice on the Feast of Tabernacles.

Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.
Psalms 97:11

On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days.
Leviticus 23:40

The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot is also a harvest- and thanksgiving festival because it occurs when the farmers gather in their harvest. The festival is celebrated for eight days. Historically, Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters before entering Canaan. On the eighth day Sukkot ends with Simchat Torah.

Symbols associated with Sukkot are: Lulav – a palm branch, Etrog – a citrus fruit similar to a lemon, Aravot – two willow branches and Hadasim – three myrtle branches. The six branches are bound together and referred to collectively as the Lulav, because the palm branch is by far the largest part. The Etrog is held separately. These are used (waved) every day during the services.

Beginning right after the end of Yom Kippur the beating of hammers can be heard all over Jerusalem. That is when you start to build your sukkah or tabernacle in order to observe Sukkot. This is done to follow the command to observe the Feasts of the LORD.

The Sukkah is built like a small hut and you use wooden – or steel scaffolds and you make walls of tarpaulins, canvas, plywood, or anything else that you can think of. The most important thing is to make sure the roof of the Sukkah is not placed under another roof or tree. You have to be able to see the sky through it. The roof of the Sukkah is made from tree branches, corn stalks, bamboo reeds, sticks, or two-by-fours. The roof must be placed sparsely enough that the stars can be seen. The interior of the Sukkah is often decorated with garlands, lamps and other things, sometimes resembling Christmas decorations. Inside the Sukkah you place a table and chairs, because many eat their meals in there. Many even sleep inside their Sukkah. This is to commemorate the wandering in the desert.