My mind has drawn a blank. I don't use Google all that often (still hanging onto Yahoo), but I remember that the Google banner changes on occasion to depict a holiday or something significant. I don't recall how to check out what it is. Something drastically simple, I'm sure. So what brings me to post today is that I noticed that the Google banner has a pinata today.

what is it for? does anyone know? I feel like I should..?

Google adds flare to their banner for various holidays. Some have left me stumped upon initial glance leading me to figure it out one way or another. With a little bit of poking around, I determined, or at least, figured that it might be that it is the Jewish holiday, Sukkot? I was thrown off by the pinata, as that doesn't seem to have anything to do with it, but some sites have "sukkot pinatas" (help me on this)- some of literature I have read doesn't explicitly mention a pinata, it appears that people use it as part of the celebration, according to one site I found. Again, why? and..well, why not? pinatas are fun! So I gather that Sukkot begins this evening and proceeds for the next seven days? Or did it start late last night?
and again, does the banner have anything to do with it?
If not, then this post will be a provide a little education on it that you may not have otherwise known about.
(WIKIPEDIA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot)



From the University of Kansas: Valuing our Differences, Celebrating Diversity website:     

[box]Sukkot, also known as Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles, begins at sunset the day before the 15th day of Tishri in the Hebrew calendar and lasts for seven days. Only the first two days are celebrated as full holidays. The word Sukkot means 'booth' and recalls the time that Israelites wandered in the desert during their journey to the promised land and lived in the sukkots.

Sukkot is the third Pilgrimage festival mentioned in the Old Testament and is a holiday of joy and happiness. It is observed by the building of a temporary dwelling (Vayikra 23: 42-43: "In booths you are to dwell for seven days ...so that your generations will know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I took them from the land of Egypt....") and by the gathering of four plants (Vayikra 23:40: "And you shall take for yourself on the first day the fruit of a goodly tree, branches of palm trees, the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before Hashem...for seven days."). On the seventh day, the four plants are paraded around the synagogue in a celebration called Hoshana Rabba, or Great Hosanna.

Sukkot also signifies a thanksgiving for the harvest. In keeping with this, the temporary dwellings are decorated with fruits of the land.[/box]

So now I know just a tiny bit more than I did upon waking.

but I still want to know what the banner is about!