Picture Perfect

One of the best Jewish holidays EVER.

Whassat?
It's the time the Jewish people leave their houses and live in temporary dwellings. Dwellings which are pretty much exposed to all the elements. They're essentially little huts or tents, the roof is made from any organic material which has been detached from the ground, but it has to be possible to see the stars at night from inside (thus invalidating wooden boards). There are loads of stipulations, I once learned all of them when I was 10 years old (I found them really boring, but am pleased today I slogged through it all). The basics are that it has to have three walls and be of certain minimum dimensions in width, length and height.

We sit in these huts whenever we want to eat a meal or snack. The hardcore Jews sleep in them at night too (I slept in it one year; not a terribly wise thing to do in september/october in England, is it? But really loads of fun, especially as I wasn't alone [if I was alone, it would have been rather rubbish] - just wrapped up really warm and slept on a few garden chairs all stuck together. The myriads of blankets couldn't stop the rain falling on me though, there was this one really annoying leaf above my head which constantly dripped rain drops on me...a bit like Chinese water torture. I woke up because of it at about 6:30am and left the garden at about 7:00am. 

History:
When the Jews were wandering around in the wilderness all those years, they were protected by a load of clouds during the day and a pillar of fire by night (repsectively called "ananei hakavod" and "amud ha'aish" in Hebrew). In memorium of this divine protection, the bible commands we build these little huts. In this way, leaving our dwellings into comparatively fragile dwellings, we show our trust and faith in the protection of God. 

Biblical Source:
It is recorded in the Bible no less than three times, to my vastly incomplete knowledge:

1) Leviticus 23:34 (2) Numbers 29:12 (3) Deuteronomy 16:13. 

Etymology:
In Hebrew, it is called sukkot (soo-COt, or s'cot). This roughly translates into "huts" but the official translation is either "Festival of Booths." Wikipedia tells me it's also called "Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, Tabernacles, the Season of Our Happiness, the Feast of Ingathering, or simply The Feast." All these are English/Christian renditions, I would never refer to it in the English vernacular, it's just too cumbersome.

As I said, this is one of my favourite festivals. Think of it like Christmas without the booze and outside the house, in September/October time.

It is the custom to invite guests for dinner and eat it in the hut. We always over invite people and end up having 15-20 guests and only 14 or so seats. But somehow, there's always a place for people to sit and eat comfortably. And there's always always enough food (obviously. And thank God, too). It must work on some sort of rotational basis...

Oh, also. I shall upload pics for you all, once its nicely set and stuff. its quite good!!