Yes that is correct, today is the 15th of Shevat and our Jewish friends celebrate Tu B’Shevat, the trees’ new year, that is when the first trees start to blossom waking up after winter’s sleep and fruit returns to the branches. How it is celebrated? Of course by feasting on all kids of fruits, as the Torah says “Man is a tree of the field”and what we can all learn from the extract from this Holy Scripture.
Its roots are of course an agricultural festival for farmers in past times, as the planting season may officially begin, as Rabbis established the 15th of Shevat as the birthday of all trees, and especially fruit trees play a special role in Torah, honouring their importance to support life and are a symbol of G-d’s love for its people. The love for trees is deep in the Jewish faith, G-d has warned them “(…)When laying siege to a city you need time to capture it, you must not destroy its trees (…)”
Interestingly enough the Talmud establishes a few New Year’s celebrations throughout the solar year, One for the reign of kings, one for the animals, one for the farmers and one for the trees, which is today, marking the end of the rain season which presents the optimal time for tree-planting.
Today Tu B’Shvat embed two deep meanings, the attachment and loyalty to the Promised Land, and renewal of the ecology, and environmentalists celebrate is a Jewish “Earth Day” to educate their people on the responsibility of being Stewards to G-d’s creation and responsible for its ecological maintains, marking this day as a day for ecological activism.
Rescogita is a training, coaching, consulting and capacity building firm centred on Ecopsychology, and as part of our mission we wish to honour both the diversity of humanity and promote the concept of a human culture different yet the same, in order to face and overcome the challenges our species and the whole biosphere are facing now.