The command is to dwell in the succah for 8 days. So, one must eat sleep and pray in the succah for 8 days.

When in a hurry, in the kitchen, at leisure, in the dining room if they have one, and during Succot (the weeklong festival of booths), when the weather permits, if the they have access to a succah, in their succah.

When in a hurry, in the kitchen, at leisure, in the dining room if they have one, and during Succot (the weeklong festival of booths), when the weather permits, if the they have access to a succah, in their succah.

the red hat made in China

During the holiday of Succot, Jews are commanded to wave the lulav (bundle of a palm frond with willow and myrtle branches, together with an etrog, a kind of primitive lemon). Some Jews do this in the succah. But the big activities in the succah are not symbolic, they are real. The commandment is to "settle in the succah" which is to say, to live there. Jews who build succot frequently eat their meals in the succah (weather permitting) and some sleep there. I suppose you could take it as symbolic when someone goes into the succah, sits down, says the blessing and eats a chunk of bread and then immediately goes back inside to finish the meal.