Vocabulary:sukkot, Promised Land, etrog, palm branch, myrtle branch, willow branch, Judiasm, ceremonies. |
Last term we began looking at thankfulness and looked at Christianity and Harvest. This term we will look at Sukkot.
Sukkot commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, and celebrates the way in which God protected them under difficult desert conditions. The word sukkot means huts and building a hut is the most obvious way in which Jews celebrate the festival. Every Jewish family will build an open air structure in which to live during the holiday. The essential thing about the hut is that it should have a roof of branches and leaves, through which those inside can see the sky, and that it should be a temporary and flimsy thing. The Sukkot ritual is to take four types of plant material: an etrog (a citron fruit), a palm branch, a myrtle branch, and a willow branch, and rejoice with them. People rejoice with them by waving them or shaking them about.