Beginning on September 27th and ending on October 4th in the year 2015 is the Jewish festival Sukkot, known in English as The Feast of Booths or the Feast of the Ingathering. The agricultural festival starts at sundown and it will run for seven days and end on the sunset on October 4th, the day of Tishrei (meaning beginning) is the first month of the Hebrew calendar. I also thought this would be a fun time to post every night so I'll do my best to deliver.
The holiday is held in memory of the Book of Exodus describing how the Israelites traveled for forty years in the Sinai Desert in Egypt before entering the Holy Land. To celebrate, Jews build a structure known as a Sukkah, a replica of the huts that Israelites lived in during the voyage.
You may ask yourself what does a Sukkah typically look like? Well I'll tell you my friend. It's a small wooden structure, which has branches as a roof, it's usually build in yards or on porches, courtyards etc. Most families opt to build their Sukkah from scratch, but some use prefabricated and easy to assemble ones. The insides are typically decorated with harvest vegetables such as corn and dried squash. All meals are to be eaten in the dwelling. During the festival, Jews are instructed to hold four plants: hadas (leaves from a myrtle tree), aravah (leaves from a willow tree), erog (fruit of the citron tree), and lulav (palm frond). The practice is outlined in Leviticus 23:40: "On the first day you shall take the product of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days."
Though our Sukkah was far from completely correct it was still a great night. We sat in our Sukkah or tent, and looked up at the stars while the three of us, Mom, Dad and me, were squeezed onto a air mattress.
Me and Dad put up the tent and found various fall decor around the yard to make our sukkah a little more authentic. If you notice in the very center of the entrance we have our dried veggie aka a dried hot pepper left over from our garden this year. Dad nicknamed it our One Hot Sukkah... Also notice the cement garden bunnies that we stuck by the door. Along with the strategically placed stick behind them.
(Please do feel inclined to click on the photos for a enlarged picture.)
As we laid in the tent together Dad felt the need to point out sumo wrestlers in the clouds to Mom and every now and then sung out, "Total eclipse of the heart!!"
(What are cats for but to force them to take selfies with you beside your hot Sukkot.)
Since I'm writing this at night on September 27th, I'll write like it. Tonight had a blood moon or a Lunar Eclipse to be more exact, either way the moon turns red. It was crazy awesome! I can still say that the thrill of seeing a red moon is still on me, since my hands are still shaking a little bit.
All I could say as I looked at the moon tonight was; "The moon is red. THE. MOON. is RED."
"Is it getting darker?? Oh that was cloud never mind." "The moon is red."
I was (and still am) freaking out, this is a crazy experience that I will never forget!
A picture of the eclipse experience. Obviously not by me.
These are the pictures I got, not quite as magical.
A friend of a friend was able to get a much better picture of the actually red moon, that they posted on Facebook tonight. Look me in the eye and tell me that is not wicked crazy.
Since it's currently 12:15 AM (Sorry Mom :D) I think I'm gonna go. I want to quickly add that this is the 111th post on Your Dose Of Awesomeness! Woohoo!
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So for the first time since the first months of Your Dose Of Awesomeness, *clears throat*
Until Tomorrow!
