Sukkot 2026: dates, the sukkah and meals outside in fall

Sukkot, also called the Feast of Tabernacles or the Feast of Booths, began at sundown on Friday, September 25, and ends at nightfall on Friday, October 2, 2026. Hebcal lists September 26 and 27 as the two full festival days, September 28 through October 1 as the intermediate days known as Chol HaMoed, and October 2 as Hoshana Raba, the seventh and final day.

The holiday marks the autumn harvest and remembers the Israelites' journey through the desert after leaving Egypt. Its best-known custom is eating festive meals in a sukkah, a temporary booth built outdoors. Chabad.org also describes the daily taking of the Four Kinds, an etrog (citron), a lulav (palm frond), myrtle twigs and willow twigs.

Right after Sukkot come Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, so for many families this week is the last stretch of a long run of fall holidays. Customs vary between communities and families, and the people who keep the holiday are the best guides to how they observe it.

For anyone else, the sukkah is a reminder that sharing a meal outside is one of the nicer things fall offers before the weather turns cold. In many places the evenings are still mild enough for it this week.

If you have friends, coworkers or neighbors celebrating, wish them a happy Sukkot this week, and if they invite you to a meal in their sukkah, it is a kind invitation worth accepting.