Americans are familiar with Arbor Day (founded in April 1872) as a time to plant, nurture and celebrate trees. There is also Earth Day which began in 1970 and is celebrated globally in 192 countries each year on April 22. Both of these celebrations revere and respect our land, our soil, our environment.  Yet, there is another tree-centric celebration which promotes arboriculture that is ancient, familiar to those practicing Judiasm called Tu BiSh'vat. The ancient Holiday has become like a 'Jewish Arbor Day' in modern times, bringing religious and secular observers together for ecological reflection. It has come to be associated with sensitivity to and appreciation of the natural environment.

Shel Silverstein's famous 1964 book "The Giving Tree" teaches children environmental ethics

In many faiths trees and nature occupy a special place in thought. For instance, Hindu holidays are based on the cycle of nature.  

Tu BiSh'vat (pronounced too-bish-vaht) comes at the very beginning of spring, when the rains are plentiful and the trees blossom in Israel. (In New York City, where this blog post is written, snow is still on the ground). The words “Tu BiSh'vat” literally mean the 15th of the month of Shvat. As the Hebrew calendar differs from the Greco-Roman calendar, the date changes slightly each year.  This year the holiday falls on February 4th.  In Israel, the religious and secular observers honor the holiday in various ways.

It is customary to plant trees and partake of the fruits of the land of Israel to mark the occasion. In the 16th century, Kabbalists created a ritual for Tu BiSh'vat that is similar to a Passover seder. Today, many Jews hold a modern version of the Tu BiSh'vat seder each year. The holiday also has become a tree-planting festival in Israel, in which Israelis and Jews around the world plant trees in honor or in memory of loved ones and friends.

Israeli Defense Forces planting trees for Tu Bish'vat.  ©Wikipedia

If you’ve studied the Old Testament, you would find the following passage in Leviticus 19:23-25:

"And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the Fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto the Lord. But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof.”

The points being that you were to wait until a tree matures, wait until after the fourth year to harvest its fruit. The specific date of the holiday has to do with the rainy season in Israel, which starts on the festival of Sukkot. It then takes four months for the rains to saturate the soil, nurture the trees and coax them into producing fruit.  For the agrarian society that we all once were, marking the beginning of when to plant and sow was especially important. This also helped people standardize tree-planting times.

Interestingly, growers in ancient times often donated a tenth of their fruit to religious leaders — a practice known as tithing — the holiday was also a sort of tax day for trees.

As a garden designer in New York City, this holiday certainly resonates, but it’s significance is slightly different. Tu B’Shevat appears rather untimely for me. This plant-based holiday takes place in the middle of winter. Considering that the fruits of the trees haven’t yet begun to grow, let alone leaf out, why celebrate the occasion by eating them?     

 Many traditions are symbolic, and Tu B’Shvat is unique in that it asks us to imagine and celebrate inherent potential.  While a few plants such as witch hazel and hellebores are beginning to bloom in the Eastern U.S., they become a harbinger of spring season and it’s possibilities. 

Some environmentalists honor this holiday by tree-sitting. Two New Yorkers prepared for Tu Bishvat in 2012 living in the canopy of 200-year-old California redwoods, part of a long-term "tree-sitting" campaign to save them from being cut down.

But the classic way to celebrate the holiday of Tu Bish'vat religiously or secularly is to eat wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates or locally grown fruit of trees with your meal (or seder).  

Almond trees blooming in Israel

In recent years, it is more about partaking in environmentally friendly Tu B’Shvat themed activities. That may be working in the garden, serving organic and regional wine at your table, eating vegetarian, being a locavore or taking a walk in the woods.  These are other opportunities to practice a healthy and sustainable celebration of nature.