A Sukkot booth constructed on a rooftop in Los Angeles.
Just after the Yom Kippur fast has ended, many Jews begin building their sukkot in preparation of the week-long holiday of the same name. As is the case with other festivals whose origins may not have been Jewish, the Bible reinterpreted the harvest festival to imbue it with a specific Jewish meaning. Besides rejoicing and thanking God for the completed harvest, Leviticus indicates it is also intended to be reminiscence of the fragile huts the Israelites lived in during their forty years of wandering in the desert. Throughout the holiday, meals are eaten inside the sukkah and many people sleep there as well. In commemoration of the bounty of the Holy Land, four species of plants— palm, myrtle, willow and citron are included in the ceremony.