What is the meaning of Sukkot and what greetings can you use to celebrate the festival?

Ritual plants on the eve of Sukkot, including a lemon — Traditionally, citron is used as a blessing for booths across Sukkot. (Picture: Getty Images)

Sunday, October 9, marks the beginning of Sukkot, otherwise known as the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles.

It’s a busy time of year in the Hebrew calendar as many important holidays and festivals start taking place from early October through to December.

So what is Sukkot, how is it celebrated and what greetings can you share?

Find out here…

What is Sukkot?

The festival of Sukkot begins five days after the end of fasting for Yom Kippur, and lasts for seven days.

Sukkot 2022 will start at sundown on Sunday, October 9, and end on the evening of Sunday, October 16.

A Jewish woman blesses and prays on the four species during the Sukkah — Sukkahs are erected across cities in Israel and beyond (Picture: Getty Images)

The festival commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, and celebrates the way in which God protected them under difficult desert conditions.

Because of the emphasis on the shelter, the main objective of the holiday is to build a Sukkah, an outdoor booth that provides shade while allowing those inside of it to see the sky.

These should be made up of at least three walls and a roof made of unprocessed foliage such as bamboo or pine branches.

The Sukkah is also blessed with arba minim, also known as the Four Species, of Sukkot.

These species are lulav (palm branch), hadas (myrtle), arava (willow), and etrog (citron), and they are mentioned in the third book of the Torah, Leviticus.

Once built and blessed, families eat all their meals inside the Sukkah – and in some cases even sleep there for the duration of the festival.

Orthodox Jews shop for plants to use for upcoming Sukkot celebrations — The roof of a Sukkah must be made of unprocessed materials, such as plants (Picture: Uriel Sinai/ Getty Images)

However this is less common in countries such as the UK, as the weather around the time of the festival is usually too cold for sleeping outdoors.

The festival begins with two days of Yom Tov, where it is forbidden to work, followed by four intermediate days known as Chol Hamoed.

During these days, normal work and activities may be resumed but eating (or living) in the Sukkah continues.

The seventh day, known as Hoshanah Rabbah, offers a final chance for repentance, in a special synagogue service in which seven circuits are made by worshippers.