Codex of FaithsAn illustrated atlas of belief

Judaism

Sukkot

When is Sukkot in 2027, the Jewish feast of booths: the sukkah roofed with branches, the four species, the joy of the harvest and the dancing of Simchat Torah.

Next date

16–22 October 2027

Begins at sunset the evening before.

Begins at sunset on 15 October. Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah follow on 23 October in Israel, and on 23 and 24 October elsewhere.

In brief

  1. I.Sukkot, “booths”, begins five days after Yom Kippur and lasts seven days.
  2. II.Families build a sukkah, a hut roofed with branches, and eat and sometimes sleep in it, recalling the Israelites’ forty years in the wilderness.
  3. III.Each day four species of plants, a palm branch, myrtle, willow and a citron, are held together and waved in blessing.
  4. IV.It ends with Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, when the yearly reading of the Torah is completed and begun again.

Chapter I

What it celebrates

The book of Leviticus commands the people of Israel to dwell in booths for seven days, “so that your generations may know that I made the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt”. Sukkot is also the festival of ingathering, Hag ha-Asif, at the end of the autumn harvest.

It was the third of the pilgrimage festivals, and the most joyful. In the days of the Temple a water libation was poured on the altar, and the celebration of the drawing of water was remembered by the rabbis as a joy unlike any other.

Chapter II

How it is kept

Families build a sukkah in a garden, yard or balcony, with at least three walls and a roof of cut branches, and decorate it with fruit, paper chains and drawings. Meals are eaten in it through the week, and some sleep in it. A custom from the Kabbalah invites the ushpizin, symbolic guests from the Bible such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David, one for each night.

Each day except the Sabbath the four species are blessed and waved, and in the synagogue worshippers circle the reading desk with them. On the seventh day, Hoshana Rabbah, they make seven circuits and beat willow branches on the ground. Then comes Shemini Atzeret, “the eighth day of assembly”, and Simchat Torah, “rejoicing in the Torah”, when the scrolls are carried round the synagogue with singing and dancing and the reading of the Torah starts again from Genesis.

Chapter III

Around the world

In Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, sukkahs appear on every balcony and markets sell palm branches and carefully inspected citrons. On Simchat Torah, dancing with the scrolls spills out of synagogues into the streets of cities from Jerusalem to New York and Moscow.

Questions people ask

What are the four species?

The lulav (a closed palm branch), two willow branches (aravot), three myrtle branches (hadasim) and the etrog, a citron. They are held together and waved in six directions, east, south, west, north, up and down, during prayer.

Why must the roof of a sukkah be open?

The roof, the schach, is made of cut branches or reeds laid loosely enough for the stars to be seen at night, yet giving more shade than sun by day. It recalls the fragile shelters of the wilderness and the trust they demanded.

Sources and further reading

  1. Time and Date, “Holidays and Observances in Israel in 2027”
  2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Sukkoth”
  3. Michael Strassfeld, The Jewish Holidays: A Guide and Commentary (HarperCollins, 1985)

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