Tabernacles (Sukkot)

The Feast of Tabernacles (Hebrew Sukkot, "booths") begins on 15 Tishri, five days after the Day of Atonement, and runs for seven days, with an eighth day of holy assembly attached (Lev 23:33–43; Num 29:12–38). It is the greatest of the three pilgrim festivals, falling at the end of the agricultural year when the threshing floor and winepress have been gathered in. For the week of the feast every Israelite-born family lives in a sukkah — a flimsy temporary booth roofed with branches loose enough to see the stars through — to remember that the Lord made Israel live in tents when he brought them out of Egypt. Worshippers also carry the "four species": a citron (etrog) and a bound spray of palm, myrtle, and willow (lulav), waved during the daily Hallel. By the first century, a water-drawing ceremony from the pool of Siloam and a great lamp-lighting in the Temple court had become central to the celebration. Jesus chose this festival to declare, on the last and great day, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37–38), and to call himself the light of the world (John 8:12).