King James Bible Dictionary

the Festival of Tabernacles (so called from the custom of erecting booths for temporary homes)

1. the construction of a tabernacle or tabernacles

2. the feast of tabernacles; this festival was observed by the Jews yearly for seven days, beginning with the 15th of the month Tisri (approx. our Oct.) partly to perpetuate the memory of the time when their ancestors after leaving Egypt dwelt in tents on their way through the Arabian desert, and partly as a season of festivity and joy on the completion of the harvest and the vintage (the festival of ingatherings) In celebrating the festival the Jews were accustomed to construct booths of the leafy branches of trees, -- either on the roofs or in the courts of their dwellings, or in the streets and squares, and to adorn them with flowers and fruits of all kinds -- under which, throughout the period of the festival, they feasted and gave themselves up to rejoicing.