Sukkot! Fabulous Harvest Festival!

Sukkah Lights

Sukkot: The Next Holiday!
If I could go back to the beginning of the creation of the calendar I would plead for a few more days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot. The High Holidays are so all encompassing and then, BOOM, it’s time for one of the pilgrimage holidays. I LOVE sukkot. Putting up the sukkah, decorating it, eating in it, having guests over. It’s all fun!

You can buy one online, you can go to a synagogue or JCC, you can build your own.

How to Make a Sukkah
Here is a fast, clear cartoon about the basic BASICS of building a sukkah.

I love this video by a guy who looks like he lives in Berkeley. He explains how to make a sukkah AND how to erect one of his mail order sukkahs.

Decorate your Sukkot
Many families make paper chains to hang in their sukkah. Try something old that’s new again. Here is a link to a free download of a bird /egg decoration that was popular back in the 17th century throughout European Jewish communities – and was passed on throughout the generations. Unfortunately they have just about disappeared from the modern sukkah decor.

If all that sounds like too much then throw a sheet over the kitchen table and let the kids crawl underneath and pretend. Get creative.

What no Sukkah!?
Are you reading this thinking, “But I don’t have a sukkah and Sukkot starts too soon. I’ve missed out.” No, you haven’t. Go to a Sukkot event at a synagogue, build something this weekend. Or like I said above, crawl under a table and just pretend. The good news is there are no Sukkah police to check your way of observing.

HAVE FUN!