The Diversity & Inclusion Blog

Sukkot (Sukkah) is primarily a Jewish tradition as a harvest festival, it commemorates a historical event and it has a spiritual or metaphysical dimension: it is a reminder to us that as human beings, we are vulnerable to God/Nature.

Beginning five days after Yom Kippur, Sukkah is named after the booths or huts (sukkot in Hebrew) in which Jews are supposed to dwell during this week-long celebration. Many build their own sukkah in which it is customary to eat meals. According to rabbinic tradition, these flimsy sukkot represent the huts in which the Israelites dwelt during their forty years of wandering in the desert after escaping from slavery in Egypt. The festival of Sukkot is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of the Jewish year.

UMass Amherst has great resources if you would like to learn more about the holiday and its history: The Festival of Sukkot