Sukkot 2011
Our family celebrated Sukkot this past week. We hosted a few nights, and participated in other family’s nights (complete with petting zoo) as well. What is Sukkot, you ask:
Sukkot (Hebrew: סוכות or סֻכּוֹת, sukkōt, or sukkos, Feast of Booths, Feast of Tabernacles) is a Biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei (late September to late October). The holiday lasts seven days. Throughout the holiday meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many sleep there as well.
Sukkot History:
The Hebrew word sukkōt is the plural of sukkah, “booth or tabernacle,” which is a walled structure covered with schach (plant material such as tree branches or bamboo shoots). The sukkah is intended as a reminiscence of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Sukkot was agricultural in origin. This is evident from the biblical name “The Feast of Ingathering,” from the ceremonies accompanying it, from the season – “The festival of the seventh month” – and occasion of its celebration: “At the end of the year when you gather in your labors out of the field” (Ex. 23:16); “after you have gathered in from your threshing-floor and from your winepress” (Deut. 16:13). It was a thanksgiving for the fruit harvest. Coming as it did at the completion of the harvest, Sukkot was regarded as a general thanksgiving for the bounty of nature in the year that had passed. According to Zechariah, in the messianic era Sukkot will become a universal festival and all nations will make pilgrimages annually to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast there.
We celebrate Sukkot to:
1. Remember/reflect (Deut. 4:9)
2. To rest and enjoy the fruit of this years’ labor (Deut. 16:13)
3. To anticipate the coming Kingdom (Rev. 21:1)
Very interesting! You guys rock.
Looks like a blast! Makes me want to go do this now. What is your kid riding?
You should bring a crew up next year for Sukkot. There were quite a few families that came to town specifically for it this year. Probably will be the last week in September if you want to start planning. :0) He is riding a donkey.