JEWISH FESTIVAL
FEAST OF TABERNACLES
Today, throughout the Jewish world, marks the beginning of the period of' nine days known as the Feast of the Tabernacles or the "season of rejoicing." The festival begins on the 15th day of Tishri, the first two days of the period and the last two being observed as days of festival and the intervening days as semi-festival or, in other words, as days • on which the ordinary avocations of the week can be carried on but which nevertheless possess a very special significance.
The festival is one of great antiquity and its observance is commanded in the Mosaic Law. It is the last of the three great Pilgrimage Festivals of the Jewish Faith, marking the release of the Israelites from their bondage in the Land of Egypt and their progress through the wilderness to Palestine. The first of the three Pilgrimage Festivals is the Passover, which marks the exodus from Egypt; the second is Pentecost, marking the giving of the Ten Commandments; and the last, the Feast of the Tabernacles, which celebrates the passage of the Israelites through the wilderness. It derives its name from the significance of the Tabernacles during these wanderings and the protection the Israelites enjoyed from God during this period of difficulty and danger. Its purpose, as explained in the Mosaic Law, is to commemorate the way in which the Israelites dwelt in booths ("sukkoth") in the wilderness, and according to the strictest observance, every Jew who owns a court or garden is required to erect a booth or something more or less equivalent and live in it, or at least have meals in it, while the feast lasts. The booths are required to be made during the days that intervene between the Day of Atonement and the feast itself. They are / adorned with garlands and flowers and often the text, "Ye shall dwell in booths seven days," is displayed in a prominent place within the booth.
On the occasion of the ceremony, synagogues are decorated with plants and fruits symbolical of rejoicing and of the in-gathering of the harvest.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19381008.2.23
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1938, Page 7
Word Count
350JEWISH FESTIVAL Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 86, 8 October 1938, Page 7
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