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 Tu
B'Shvat is a festival of nature celebrated throughout Israel and not only there.
It is a tradition to go on excursion. And on January 18 we, the members of the
family club of Petropavlovsk Jewish community went to the city greenhouse.
We visited the "tropical park". The most remarkable trees
we saw were fan and date palms, lemon, orange, mandarin, and even etrog trees.
At the end of the excursion we visited the exhibition of articles made of natural
materials. Children represented their impressions in drawings and paintings
in their drawing club.
But Tu B'Shvat does not mean only rest in the open air. This day
people usually plant trees, that is why the 15 of Shvat is called the New Year
of Trees. However, taking into consideration the temperature (- 20C), we could
do nothing but planting house plants into small pots. Before the "ceremony"
of planting JCC director Svetlana Makarovskaya congratulated the guests and
told about the customs of Tu B'Shvat.
From the report of JCC librarian Igor Zhigarlovsky the guests found
out about the rituals of Tu B'Shvat celebration, the nature and climate of Israel.
Then members of the children's music club leaded by Tatyana Falaleyeva presented
songs-sketches in Hebrew, Russian, and English.
After the blessing over fruits (there were 15 kinds of them on the
table) we began Tu B'Shvat Seder. After that there was a quiz on the ritual
of celebrating the New Years of Trees, and a contest for the best article made
of fruits and vegetables. Everybody got prizes.
The festive party was concluded by the newly created Klezmer band
leaded by Yakov Strizhak, they played an encore
Igor Zhigarlovsky |
