Sukkot

I just read The Very Crowded Sukkah by Leslie Kimmelman, and it had a really nice afterword that describes the holiday.  I include it here in its entirety:

"About Sukkot

     Jews all over the world celebrate the holiday of Sukkot for seven days in September or October.  It is a harvest holiday - something like a Jewish Thanksgiving.  Sukkot means "booths" or "huts," for the little huts Jews build in their backyards, where they enjoy their meals during the holidays.  It's a reminder of the days long ago, when Jews wandered in the desert for forty years, often building little huts at night for shelter.  Later, Jewish farmers also built sukkot during harvest seasons so that they could stay near their fields and protect their crops.

     Each hut, or sukkah, has three sides and a leafy roof.  The branches that cover the roof are thick enough to provide more shade than sun inside, but thin enough so that they sky -- or at night, the stars -- still shows through.

     The etrog (whcih looks like a giant lemon) and the lulav bouquet (made from date palm, myrtle, and willow branches) are symbols of the holiday.  With the etrog in the left hand, and the lulav bouquet in the right, special blessings are said on Sukkot mornings. The lulav branches are waved east, west, north, up and down, to show that God is Everywhere.  Thanks are given for the good food of the earth and for the rain that helps it grow."