FEAST OF THE TABERNACLES. - One of the three annual feasts of Israel, together with Passover and Pentecost, at which "every male" had to "appear before the Lord God" (Ex. 23:17) in Jerusalem (feast of pilgrimage).
The "feast of booths" (Heb. ḥagh has-sukkōth; Lev. 23:34) was also called simply "the feast" (Ex. 45:25), because of its popularity and gaiety, and was considered the most "holy" (Philo, De septenario, 10). It was celebrated exactly six months after Passover, from the 15th to the 21st of Tishri, to which the 22nd of Tishri was added as a day of
(by courtesy of Msgr. S. Mattei)
TABERNACLE - Wall tabernacle (14th century) with two censing angels - Comelico, parish church of S. Niccolò (Cadore).
closing of the cycle of annual festivals: on the 15th and the 22nd abstinence from servile work was imposed, as on the Sabbath (Lev. 23:35-36). The report of the transfer of this festival in the Northern Kingdom to the following month, found in I Kings 12:32-33, is perhaps due to a gloss.
The f[east] of T[abernacles] had fundamentally the character of thanksgiving to God at the end of the grape harvest and in general of the fruits of the countryside, whence the name "feast of ingathering" (Ex. 23:16), and therefore a feast of the closing of the agricultural year (cf. "at the end of the year," ibid. 23:16). The interpretation that sees in it an originally New Year festival, corresponding to a Canaanite custom (unproven and improbable) of beginning the year at the "autumn feast," is unfounded. The time at which it took place explains the exceptional abundance of the offerings made there, especially the rich sacrifices of animals (Num. 29:12-38), amid the rejoicing of the people, who took part in the rites with branches in hand, to be waved according to fixed rules at the salient moments of the ceremony (Lev. 23:40: from an interpretation of this text derived the custom of holding in the left hand a citron branch with its fruit [postbiblical Hebrew 'ethrōgh], and in the right a small bundle of palm and myrtle branches, called lālābh, or, according to G. Dalman, lōlābh). Moreover the feast had a commemorative character with reference to Israelite origins: it was to recall the time of the wandering in the desert, when Israel dwelt under tents. Hence its characteristic feature: during the eight days of the solemnity people dwelt in booths, which were built in the open air with tree branches (the relevant prescription appears only in Neh. 8:15). To this particularity refers the name "scenopegia" (σκηνοπηγία) given to the feast in the Hellenistic era (I Macc. 10:21; Jn. 7:2).
The Jewish customs relating to the feast are described in a special treatise of the Miṣṇāḥ (II, 6: Sukkā'). Among other things it speaks there of a solemn libation, perhaps allusive to the miracle of the rock in the desert (Ex. 17:1-7), of which there are only probable hints in the Old Testament (I Sam. 7:6 etc.): during the ceremony the text of Isaiah on the "waters of salvation" was sung (Is. 12:3). To this rite allude the words of Christ spoken "on the last day of the scenopegia": "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (Jn. 7:37).