On October 9, the family leaders of all the people, together with the priests and Levites, met with Ezra the scribe to go over the law. As they studied the Law, they discovered that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelite should live in shelters druing the festival to be held that month. He had said that a proclamation should be made throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, telling the people to to to the hills to get branches from olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm and other leafy trees. They were to use these branches to make shelters in which they would live during the festival , as prescribed by the Law.
So the people went out and cut branches an used them to build shelters on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of God’s Temple, or in the squares just inside the Water Gate and the Ephraim Gate. So everyone who had returned from captivity lived in these shelters during the festival, and they were al filled with great joy! The Israelite had not celebrated like this since the days of Joshua son of Nun.
Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God on each of the seven days of the festival. Then on the eighty day they held a solemn assembly, as required by law. (vv 13-18, NLT)