Sukkot is a Jewish holiday whose name comes from the Hebrew “hag hasSukkot,” meaning the “feast of booths” or “feast of huts,” and it commemorates not only an annual harvest festival but the story of the Israelites being provided for by God on their journey through the desert out of Egypt. It takes place over the course of a week, always five days after Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and repentance and the holiest day in Judaism.
After the solemnity of Yom Kippur, Sukkot is a time of joy and gratitude for food, the wonders of nature, and all of life’s other bounties. There are several traditions accompanying each day of the festival, chief among them visiting one’s synagogue for prayers and saying blessings with arba minim (the “Four Kinds” of herbs; palm branch, myrtle, willow, and citron), a custom known as hoshanot.
As the name suggests, another important custom is building and decorating simple huts to reside, eat, and sometimes sleep in. These are called sukkah, and represent both farmers’ shelters in the fields and the shelters the Israelites slept in in the desert. Ideally, observers spend as much of the holiday in a sukkah with loved ones.
There is also a holiday called “shemini atzeret” (“the eighth sacred/solemn gathering), which is distinct from Sukkot, but often celebrated as an eighth day of Sukkot. Whether Sukkot and several other Jewish holidays are celebrated for extra days or not depends on whether the observer is residing in Israel or not, a custom derived from the methods of determining the lunar calendar before a process for predicting when the dates of months and holidays on the Jewish calendar would fall.
Sukkot is not a federal holiday in the United States, so expect government buildings and most businesses to be operating on normal hours. Employers should be prepared to give observers time off to observe, as it is not only a holiday traditionally spent with loved ones but its first two days place restrictions on whether an observer is permitted to work. See here for a selection of congregations holding Sukkot celebrations in New York City this year.
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