Architects compete to design ritual hut

As the Jewish holiday of Sukkot approaches, the city is preparing to host a Sukkah City competition, in which 600 entrants from 43 countries have been whittled down to 12 finalists whose religious devotional huts will stand in Union Square Sept. 19 and 20. The public can vote to choose the winning hut, or sukkah, which will be on display until Oct. 2, according to New York Magazine, which has a slide show of the final entries on its website. The huts have been created using all sorts of materials, including grass, wire, cardboard, hemp and wooden slats. Observant Jews erect these structures each fall during the seven-day holiday, eating and sometimes sleeping in them, in commemoration of when their ancestors wandered in the desert. The word “sukkot” refers both to the huts (plural) and the holiday, a joyous seven-day harvest festival, in which celebrants brandish a citrus fruit known as an etrog, and a bundle of palm, willow, and myrtle branches called a lulav. [NY Mag]