Tu B'Shvat 2025 is on Saturday, February 8, 2025: What is Tu B'Shvat?

Saturday, February 8, 2025 is Tu B'Shvat 2025. Learn about Tu B Shvat Fruit For Thought: Lessons to learn From the New Year for Trees

Tu Bishvat () is a Jewish holiday occurring on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (in 2014, Tu Bishvat will start at sunset on 15 January and will end at nightfall on 16 January).

Tu B'Shevat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. See Lev. 19:23-25, which states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for God, and after that, you can eat the fruit. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shevat, so if you planted a tree on Shevat 14, it begins it second year the next day, but if you plant a tree two days later, on Shevat 16, it does not reach its second year until the next Tu B'Shevat.

How is Tu B'shvat (15th day of Shvat) celebrated in Israel?

During the late 19th century, with the renewal of Jewish settlement in Israel, the initiative to plant trees began in the schools and spread throughout the country and became a deeply rooted custom.

Today it is customary to take children on tree-planting outings on Tu B’Shvat. Preschools and schools hold special ceremonies to mark the holiday. In the past few years, an ecological element has been added to this holiday: the conservation and nurturing of trees (and the green landscape in general) as a symbol of the importance of nature in our lives.Tu B'Shvat is a time for reshaping one’s relationship with nature and discerning his role in preserving it.

Feasting is actually an intrinsic part of Tu B'Shvat. The feasts on Tu B'Shvat are characterized by sumptuous spreads of a variety of fruits and nuts. With a colorful array of dates, raisins, pears and oranges to eat and glasses of wines to sip at, the meals on Tu B'Shvat are indeed a time for rejoicing. .

Jews: Do any of you have a Tu B'Shevat seder?

For decades I was called the "Tu B'Shvat maven" of my community..and always managed to get a lot of tree seedlings for the community to plant, either from the U.S. Forest Service, the Arkansas Forestry Commission , Weyerhauser or Arbor Day ( through community donations ) or through contacts with environmental organizations such as Sierra Club. I don't do that any more but I still plant trees every year in my community and on my five acres.

I've never had a Tu B'Shvat seder but I have taught *about* them. They were simply not a part of my community experience growing up but our synagogue did have a couple of them . I was always more active in planting trees :)

and this year..after we lost so many trees to an ice storm in my area..I'm going to plant many trees again. I thought we'd only lost five trees on my five acres, but I discovered five more smaller trees were killed..so I need to plant at least 10 trees this year to break even :)

Here are past answers related to this topic:

< this one tells about the seder and its history

edit: I've never heard of an eco-seder either..but it sounds to me like it tries to blend Tu B'shvat with the modern movement? They do share in ethics..but I hope it doesn't do disservice to the purpose of the Tu B'Shvat seder by omission.

edit: Thanks for the link polska, it looks interesting. How much of the traditional TuB'shvat seder is kept?

Isn't it interesting how a time to honor the counting of the age of trees for tithing of the fruits has evolved.