Sukkot
I've mentioned before that I live in a heavily Jewish neighborhood and that I live on the same block as a synagogue. One of the things that results from this is that I get to learn a bit about Jewish culture and holidays.
Today, I heard lots of hammering and sawing on my street, which I figured was just somebody building some random thing. Well, it continued after it got dark, and it was still going on at 9:00, so I asked my neighbor if he knew anything about the construction that was happening.
It turns out this is the beginning of the holiday of sukkot, and these people are building structures of the same name outside their houses. They erect these temporary shelters and eat and sleep in them, to remember the days after the Israelites left Egypt and were wandering the desert, sleeping sometimes in similar structures.
With the unpredictable weather we've been having here lately, I don't think I would want to spend my nights under a plywood roof, but it seems they have a good reason for doing it, so more power to them.
Comments
It is amazing what people will do in the name of religion. Some people build sukkots. Some people live like it's still the 18th century. Some people devote their lives to the jihad, practicing every day for their suicide mission. Some people prostrate themselves in front of false idols. It's weird that so many people have this deep-seated need to subjugate themselves to what they believe to be a higher power.
Posted by: arc | October 5, 2006 07:50 AM
I wonder if it would be very rude to take a lot of photos of the sukkot huts. I see a nice flickr series in the making . . .
Posted by: zpzp | October 10, 2006 11:18 AM