‘Intercultural Sukkot Party’ – Mon 2 October 2023.

The Sukkot Festival

Sukkot is an eight-day festival when it is common practice to eat all meals in booths, huts or other kinds of temporary dwellings made all the more peculiar by their thatched and sometimes decorated roofs. The first two days and the last two days are holy days, whilst the interim days are less holy, though many of the customs of the festival still apply.

Spending time in such lodgings is supposed to be commemorative of a time from the Bible when the Jewish people spent forty years in the wilderness of the desert after leaving Egypt as slaves, before entering the Promised Land. However, to put it in a modern context, it is often said that it comes so soon after Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur because it is supposed to teach the Jewish people that just because they have atoned for their sins, cleansed themselves of their faults and prayed for a good new year, does not mean that they are in total control of their surroundings and can rest on their laurels.

To prove this in the most dramatic of ways, they spend a week or so, at a time of year that is not so hot in either hemisphere, in a temporary booth with branches instead of a roof. This signifies vulnerability, devotion to the Creator and a belief that although we are capable of great achievement and building homes for ourselves, ultimately there is a higher purpose.

Either way, it is a good opportunity to have some festive meals and to enjoy the company of those around you.