The holiday of Sukkot celebrates the gathering of the harvest and God's protection when the Jewish people left Egypt.

Many Jewish people and religious organizations build temporary open-air shelters called sukkahs in honor of that journey and the 40 years the Jews wandered the desert.

In this 1959 Blade archive photo, Robert Schuller, left, and Cary Hersh put final touches on the decorations for Congregation B’nai Israel’s sukkah. During the seven-day festival, celebrants spend as much time as possible in their shelters, eating most of their meals there.

This year, Sukkot starts Monday night and ends Monday, Oct. 13.

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