# History of Sukkot: Festival of Booths > HISTORY OF SUKKOT: FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS Tonight, at sunset on September 25, begins the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, also known as the Festival of Booths or the Festival of Tabernacles. We've talked about the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and… > URL: https://billpetro.com/history-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths/ > Last modified: 2026-09-23T03:24:18+00:00 Reading Time: 3 minutes ## HISTORY OF SUKKOT: FESTIVAL OF BOOTHS Tonight, at sunset on September 25, begins the Jewish holiday of **Sukkot**, also known as the *Festival of Booths* or the *Festival of Tabernacles*. We’ve talked about the High Holy Days of [**Rosh Hashanah**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-rosh-hashanah/) and **[Yom Kippur](https://billpetro.com/history-of-yom-kippur)**; Sukkot, which follows five days later, differs in that it is one of the [three pilgrimage festivals](https://billpetro.com/history-of-pilgrimages-all-roads-lead-to-rome/#:~:text=indeed%2C%20even%20in%20modern%20judaism%2C%20there%20are%20three%20pilgrimage%20festivals%20when%20jews%20are%20to%20return%20to%20jerusalem%3A%20passover%20(pesach)%2C%20shavuot%20(feast%20of%20weeks%2Fpentecost)%2C%20and%20sukkoth%20(festival%20of%20booths)%2C%20as%20originally%20mentioned%20in%20the%20torah%20(first%20five%20books%20of%20the%20bible).). The Old Testament **Book of Leviticus** commands the commemoration of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. They were to commemorate it by living in temporary *booths* for a week *“… that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”  *Leviticus 23:43 The week started with a Sabbath (a day of rest from work) and ended on the eighth day with another Sabbath. The first day was a solemn day of rest, and the seven days were followed by an eighth, Shemini Atzeret, also a day of rest.   Table of Contents Toggle - [Pilgrimage Holidays](#Pilgrimage_Holidays) - [Booths](#Booths) - [First-Century Observance of Sukkot](#First-Century_Observance_of_Sukkot) - [Modern Observance of Sukkot](#Modern_Observance_of_Sukkot) - [Related](#Related) ### Pilgrimage Holidays A “pilgrimage” holiday was when Jewish males were required to travel up to the Temple in Jerusalem – you always “go up” to Jerusalem, both because the approach is uphill from most places in Israel, and because of its spiritual elevation. Until the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, Sukkot, along with **[Passover](https://billpetro.com/history-of-passover)** (Pesach) and [**Pentecost**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-pentecost) (Shavuot), was one of the three feasts or festivals when ancient male Israelites, as commanded in the *Torah* (the Law, the Five Books of Moses), were to travel to the Temple to make sacrifices and worship along with the services led by the “kohanim” (priests) in Jerusalem.   ### Booths The booths played to the secondary agricultural aspect of Sukkot, as mentioned in the **Book of Exodus,** chapters 23 and 34, where it is called the Feast of Ingathering, or the “bringing in” of the harvest. Harvesters lived in field shelters during the ingathering. They marked, in a sense, the end of harvest time. The Book of Deuteronomy discusses the importance of the wheat harvest yield and the wine vats as part of the offering. Each booth (*sukkah*, plural *sukkot*) typically had three sides, with an opening on the fourth side and a roof covered with cut branches that offered more shade than sun while letting the stars show through.   ### First-Century Observance of Sukkot During the time of Christ, Jerusalem was home to the *Second Temple*, which was beautified by the Jewish King [**Herod the Great**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-king-herod), the client king of Rome for Judea. Jews would come from all over the Diaspora within and beyond the [Roman Empire](https://billpetro.com/history-of-fall-of-roman-empire/), to make their sacrifices in Jerusalem. During one of Jesus’ trips to Jerusalem during the Feast of Booths, the [**Gospel of John**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-feast-of-st-john) records that on the last day of the feast, Jesus stood up and cried out, *“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”  *John 7:37-38 His words were a deliberate proclamation identifying himself with one aspect of the Sukkot celebration, the water-drawing ceremony, in which water was drawn from the Pool of Siloam, referencing the “wells of salvation” mentioned in the **Book of Isaiah 12:3**. His words caused a great division at the time, and the subsequent passage recounts how people wondered whether he was the Prophet or the foretold Christ.   ### Modern Observance of Sukkot Nearly two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple, Sukkot remains widely observed. Years ago, I had a next-door neighbor who was the town rabbi. On his house deck, he would build a booth-like structure during Sukkot.      In recent years, even [Google](https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/google-does-sukkot/) has participated. Two *sukkahs* were built on the balconies of Google’s New York headquarters building in Chelsea. Both *Jewglers* (the colloquial term for Google’s Jewish employees) and other Googlers were encouraged to drop by. In subsequent years, Google offices in Pittsburgh, Boston, Buenos Aires, Dublin, and the Mountain View global headquarters in California pitched sukkahs.     Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian [billpetro.com](https://billpetro.com) [*Subscribe*](http://g003.enterprise.ipost.com/billpetrofriend/prefs) to receive future articles by email.  ### *Related* [](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/x?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/pinterest?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/linkedin?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/mastodon?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/threads?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/bluesky?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/reddit?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/tumblr?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/kindle_it?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/snapchat?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/print?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-sukkot-festival-of-booths%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Sukkot%3A%20Festival%20of%20Booths)[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)