Tu BiShvat

Tu BiShvat, the fifteenth day of Shevat, is known as the New Year of the Trees. In rabbinic law it provided a date for calculating the age of fruit trees and related agricultural rules. That technical beginning grew into a much wider cultural observance, particularly in a country where cultivation, landscape and seasonal rain have such immediate meaning.

Modern Israeli observance often turns the date into an invitation to plant, hike, learn about native landscapes or share fruit and nuts. The older mystical custom of a Tu BiShvat seder has also been renewed in many homes and communities. It is not one of Israel’s statutory days of rest, so ordinary work and school schedules usually continue, but its educational and environmental presence is substantial. The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, so this Gregorian date is for planning. Israel’s official annual calendar and any employer, school or municipal notice should be checked before fixed travel or work arrangements.

Tu BiShvat begins at sunset on 14 Shevat, although this calendar places it on the following civil daytime. In 2026 that daytime is Monday, February 2. No national closure follows from the date: workplaces ordinarily operate, and school participation depends on the education calendar and local programming. Tree planting in modern Israel has also carried changing civic and ecological meanings, from afforestation and agricultural settlement to present-day discussion of biodiversity, water, fire resilience and the suitability of native species. That wider context makes environmental learning more accurate than presenting every ceremonial planting as an ancient religious requirement.