John 7:2

ἡ ἑορ. τ. Ἰουδ. ἡ σκ. Tabernacles, or ‘the Feast of the 7th month, or ‘of ingathering,’ was the most joyous of the Jewish festivals. It had two aspects: (1) a commemoration of their dwelling in tents in the wilderness, (2) a harvest-home. It was therefore a thanksgiving (1) for a permanent abode, and especially for a permanent place of worship, (2) for the crops of the year. Celebrebant hoc Judaei, velut reminiscentes beneficia Domini, qui occisuri erant Dominum (S. Augustine). It began on the 15th of the 7th month, Ethanim or Tisri (about our September), and lasted seven days, during which all who were not exempted through illness or weakness were obliged to live in booths, which involved much both of the discomfort and also of the merriment of a picnic. The distinctions between rich and poor were to a large extent obliterated in the general encampment, and the Feast thus became a great levelling institution. On the eighth day the booths were broken up and the people returned home: but it had special sacrifices of its own and was often counted as part of the Feast itself. The Feast is mentioned here, partly as a date, partly to shew what after all induced Christ to go up to Jerusalem, partly perhaps for its symbolical meaning. ‘The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us’ (John 1:14). Tabernacles was a type of the Incarnation, as the Passover of the Passion.