During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, many Jewish Americans build a temporary booth known as the sukkah. This sukkah is where they eat, sleep, and use for the duration of the Sukkot period, which typically lasts for about seven days.
The Significance of Sukkot
Sukkot is one of the three major festivals in Judaism, and it is both an agricultural festival of thanksgiving as well as a commemoration of the 40-year period during which the Israelites wandered in the desert after leaving slavery in Egypt, living in temporary shelters as they traveled. The holiday is known as “the Time of our Happiness.”
Dwelling in the Sukkah
For the seven days and nights of Sukkot, Jews are commanded to eat all their meals in the sukkah and otherwise regard it as their home. The sukkah is a temporary structure made up of at least three walls and a roof of unprocessed natural vegetation, such as bamboo, pine boughs, or palm branches.
The goal is to spend as much time as possible in the sukkah, at the very minimum eating all meals in the sukkah, particularly the festive meals on the first two nights of the holiday. Some people even choose to sleep in the sukkah, though this is not a universal custom.