Brock Corydon celebrates new sukkah

​Photos and article by Jared Story

Students at Brock Corydon School can now celebrate a Jewish harvest holiday in style.

On Sept. 27, Brock Corydon held a grand opening for its sukkah, a tent-like structure used during the weeklong Jewish festival of Sukkot. The sukkah was purchased with a $3,800 grant from the Jewish Foundation of Manitoba.

“Sukkot is sort of a Thanksgiving-like holiday,” said Brock Corydon teacher Carrie Standil Cox.

“One aspect of Sukkot is to create community, celebrate the harvest and to invite friends and families to come share a meal. It’s traditional to share a meal in the sukkah. The roof is partly open, it traditionally has a covering of branches and leaves, so you can see the stars at night and be one with nature. It’s a beautiful holiday.”

Due to cold, wet weather, Brock Corydon held its ribbon cutting ceremony for the sukkah in the school’s gymnasium. Principal Ara Morris read a Dr. Seuss-like poem by Rabbi Arthur E. Gould called Rules of the Sukkah and Hebrew Bilingual program students explained Sukkot’s meaning to their English peers.

After the ribbon cutting, a group of Grade 6 Hebrew Bilingual students went inside the sukkah and took turns smelling an etrog, a citron fruit, and waving the lulav, a symbol made of palm branch, myrtle and palm and willow. 

“The etrog symbolizes the heart and also has a lovely smell and taste, so it’s customary to smell it,” Standil Cox said. “With the lulav, the myrtle is representative of the eyes, the willow of the lips and the palm branch of the spine. Those things in conjunction make up a whole person. It’s talking about being aware of who you are, being humbled, putting thought into things, and also kindness.”