Sukkot in Jerusalem

Last year around this time, we were celebrating Eitan's first birthday which fell out on the second day of Sukkot and planning for our year here in Jerusalem. It feels like both forever ago and yesterday. Eitan's birthday is still a couple weeks away, so no planning for a Sukkah party.

Birthday Sukkah 2011 (got rained out)

One thing that has been in common  between our Sukkots last and this year, which really should not be is RAIN! It poured rain on the first night of Sukkot here, which is very very unusual (like everything else relating to our time in this desert which last winter had record amounts of rain, and this year seems to have record early rain). Being rained out of the Sukkah is a very usual occurrence for us, and grabbing your plate, silverware and glass old hat. Just not expected for this year and as it seems, quite newsworthy.

There is a ton of stuff going on here in Jerusalem for Sukkot- and all the children are off school (again, not the parents off work necessarily, I don't understand how people do it) filling the streets and playgrounds. Some highlights include a open street festival on Derech Bet Lechem Street tonight, an open house at the central fire station with demonstrations and everything, an all day festival at the Carlbach Moshav and tomorrow an all day festival in Gan Sacher. There's of course also nightly impromptu Sukkah parties, concerts, etc. But you know, around these parts we focus on the kid friendly activities. Because we're really cool like that.

(Almost) All of the restaurants have Sukkahs jammed in corners, on the sidewalks, in alleys and even around street benches, and every nook of the city that has an open space seems to be populated by them.

One thing that I haven't been keeping up with this holiday season is the bus signs. You might remember that I loved that last year around Chanuka and Purim time the fact that the buses featured "Chag Sameach" signs with the route number. Around this time of year, these signs are constantly changing. Around Rosh Hashana they read "Shana Tova", a few days later in time for Yom Kippur "Chatima Tova" (may you be inscribed well) and now it's "Moadim L'Simcha" (festivals of joy- Sukkot is called the time of our happiness). So in capturing these changing messages, I'm 1 for 3. Not great. The Redskins even have a better record then that right now (2-2).

More to come as we enjoy Sukkot here!