Sukkot

Sukkot is an autumn holiday in the narrator’s childhood that combines hands-on preparation, meals in a temporary outdoor shelter, and a mid-holiday pause for family outings. Its rituals place her beside Zeidy in useful work; its Chol Hamoed excursion with Mimi gives her an unexpected experience of exhilaration and freedom.

Ritual and Domestic Preparation

In the days before Sukkot, Zeidy builds the sukkah, a small wooden hut where the family will eat for eight days. The narrator’s task is to stand at the foot of his ladder and pass him the bamboo rods for the roof, one at a time, while he rolls the heavy pieces onto the newly nailed beams. The work can become tedious after hours of handing up each rod, but she likes feeling useful, and the preparation is one of the holiday tasks Zeidy makes time for.

The rods have been stored in the cellar for most of the year, yet they smell fresh and sweet; their cool surfaces have been polished by years of use. Zeidy handles each one slowly and deliberately, while the dowels clatter into place overhead. The work gives the holiday a tangible shape: a shelter assembled by hand, stick by stick, before the family gathers to eat inside it.

Sukkot is also associated with the narrator’s pleasure in autumn outdoors. She lingers on Bubby’s porch, wrapped in sweaters against the chill, lying on a bed made from three wooden chairs. Between the back-to-back brownstone tenements, the pale sun reaches her through a narrow alley. The brief warmth matters precisely because the season is turning; she stays until the light weakens over the dusty horizon.

Chol Hamoed and Family Outings

The four middle days of Sukkot are called Chol Hamoed. They are less ceremonial than the surrounding holiday days: driving and spending money are permitted, although work is not, and families commonly use the time for trips. The narrator expects to join her cousins. The previous year they went to Coney Island; this year Mimi says they will go ice-skating in the park.

After two days helping Bubby carry meal trays between the kitchen and the sukkah, the narrator is ready when Mimi comes to collect her. She has followed Mimi’s instructions for dressing warmly: thick tights, socks, a heavy sweater, puffy mittens, and a hat. The layers leave her feeling swollen and awkward. Beside her, Mimi looks elegant in a charcoal wool coat with a velvet collar and velvet gloves, and the narrator envies her polished appearance. The contrast makes the outing feel like entry into a world in which Mimi seems more at ease.

Ice-Skating and a Moment of Freedom

At first, the narrator wobbles on rented skates and clings to the rink wall. Once she finds her balance, however, the movement changes completely: she pushes off with each foot and glides with her back straight, as Mimi advised. She closes her eyes during the smooth stretches and feels as if she is flying. The experience is unlike anything she has felt before; she describes it as freedom.

The rink’s sounds sharpen that sensation. Laughter recedes into the background, while the scrape of skates over ice and the rush of air become most immediate. Repetition turns her movement almost trancelike, and she wishes life could remain like this. Each time she opens her eyes, she expects to find herself somewhere else. Sukkot’s family outing thus becomes a brief escape from ordinary constraint: the holiday’s calendar creates the occasion, but the narrator’s own movement across the ice supplies its liberating force.