Jewish Care

Home > News > Archive 2007 > October > Hyman Fine House celebrates Succot

Date:  1 October 2007

Volunteers help in Succot celebrations at Hyman Fine House

Volunteers played a key role in helping care home residents to celebrate the festival of Succot at Hyman Fine House in Burlington Street, which is run by Jewish Care. Every year, Jewish people celebrate the festival by building a “Succah” with walls and a roof covered in green leaves, usually adjoining their homes.

Volunteers from the home’s ladies committee helped the elderly residents to decorate the succah by hanging fruit and vegetables from the roof. The festival commemorates God’s protection of the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness for forty years before reaching the “Promised Land”.

“It went off beautifully,” said Sylvia Arghebant, one of the six-strong team of volunteers who climbed up the ladder to carry out the decorations. She was helped by Miriam Flexer, Rita Gordon, Beryl Lazarus, Vivian Stockman and Dian Faull.

The festival began on Wednesday 26th September and lasts for eight days.

During Succot, it is customary to eat meals and refreshments in the Succah and another religious requirement is to shake the “Arba Minim” or four species, comprising an Etrog (large citrus fruit from Israel), held with a palm branch, three myrtle branches and two willow branches. This is considered to be a Mitzvah, which is a good deed.