Tu BiShvat, the nice Jewish holiday marking the new year or birthday of trees, begins tonight.
Years ago, before the time of refrigeration and rapid transport, when Jews in the Diaspora wanted to celebrate the day by eating fruits of the Holy Land, they had to eat dried fruits instead of fresh.
It evolved into a custom even here.
The colorful varieties on this Arab seller's cart parked on Mt. Zion, just outside the Zion Gate, are a treat for the eyes.
These days, however, dates and raisins are about the only ones that are local; all the other dried fruit is imported from Turkey, Hawaii, and Thailand.
If you'd like to learn more about Tu BiShvat please see my posts from earlier years.
There are nice pictures there from a Tu BiShvat seder (modeled after the Passover seder).
Happy birthday, trees of Israel!
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An interesting concept to bring in a new year.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I've answered your question at my post for today.
How interesting to see from where the fruit is imported, especially since I am writing this from Hawaii and have a tough time finding locally grown fruit here these days - papaya and pineapple fields are giving away to development.
ReplyDeletemmm !! I'll have a piece of fruit please.
ReplyDeleteWe try to make all our yom tov and special day meals milchig so we can have delicious and fresh fruit for sweets. Always drizzled with passionfruit and double cream or yoghurt added :)
ReplyDeleteHawaii? Oh my! That's a long way to travel. Most of our dried fruit comes from Thailand, I think.
ReplyDelete"...Tu BiShvat, the nice Jewish holiday marking the new year or birthday of trees"
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there was such a holiday. What a wonderful thing to celebrate!