The Jewish Holiday Season
I have to admit that I really enjoy the Christmas holiday season. There are many things I like about it but the thing I like most are all of the decorations. Christmas decorations and especially Christmas trees can be beautiful. I am not the only Jewish person who feels this way. Many secular Jews have Christmas trees and decorate there homes during the holiday season for this reason. When I was about 21 I actually had a Christamas tree. I decorated it with plastic fruit that looked like it was made in the 1950's and rainbow lights.
As I became more involved in Jewish life I began to learn that the Jews actually have their own holiday season season that runs from Rosh HaShanah to Simchat Torah. Though I enjoy all of the holidays my favorite one is definitely Sukkot.
There are many reasons why I love Sukkot. I love having meals with family and friends and I love spending time outside in our sukkah but what I love most is having the opportunity to decorate our sukkah. Before I had kids I used to help decorate our synagogue's sukkah. The first year I helped out we covered the roof with cedar boughs and strung up pomegranates, small gourds and chili peppers. That was when realized I could channel that desire to seasonally decorate into something that was Jewish.
This year I had visions of really going to town with our sukkah. I had planned on making decorations that we would use year after year, using lots of greens and hanging white "Sukkot" lights. Unfortunately, since I am naturally disorganized and a bit of a procrastinator, I have not had time to make any reusable decorations. The plan now is to do a rainbow themed sukkah which the girls think is a great idea. We have been having lots of fun making paper chains and rainbow tissue paper flowers to hang in our sukkah.
This morning my husband is going to build our Sukkah in our building's court yard and the kids and I will begin to decorate it over the next few days. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll try to post a picture of it before the holiday begins this Friday night after sunset.
As I became more involved in Jewish life I began to learn that the Jews actually have their own holiday season season that runs from Rosh HaShanah to Simchat Torah. Though I enjoy all of the holidays my favorite one is definitely Sukkot.
There are many reasons why I love Sukkot. I love having meals with family and friends and I love spending time outside in our sukkah but what I love most is having the opportunity to decorate our sukkah. Before I had kids I used to help decorate our synagogue's sukkah. The first year I helped out we covered the roof with cedar boughs and strung up pomegranates, small gourds and chili peppers. That was when realized I could channel that desire to seasonally decorate into something that was Jewish.
This year I had visions of really going to town with our sukkah. I had planned on making decorations that we would use year after year, using lots of greens and hanging white "Sukkot" lights. Unfortunately, since I am naturally disorganized and a bit of a procrastinator, I have not had time to make any reusable decorations. The plan now is to do a rainbow themed sukkah which the girls think is a great idea. We have been having lots of fun making paper chains and rainbow tissue paper flowers to hang in our sukkah.
This morning my husband is going to build our Sukkah in our building's court yard and the kids and I will begin to decorate it over the next few days. I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll try to post a picture of it before the holiday begins this Friday night after sunset.
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