Tu tu tu B'shvat

Thanks to all who made it out on Sunday.

We learnt all about Tu B'shvat - the New Year of trees.

First we wished Ava and Alex a very happy birthday, in english, hebrew, french and even in chinese...

Tu B'shvat is a holiday that is celebrated outside -where trees live. We celebrate Tu B'shvat in middle of the month Shevat which is in the middle of our winter. (betw January and February). We said trees were important because they help us have pure air, shade when it is hot and under which we can have picnics. They grow big and strong and we can build a swing or tree house. It is also where cats get away from dogs, where birds build their nests and it also makes our parks beautiful and a little bit more interesting especially when playing hide and seek.

Since this is the time of the year we plant trees in Israel, we at Sunday Funday decided to do the same, except we made a TU BSHVAT MAN :

So we drew a funny face :

Then we filled an empty plastic cup with soil and added some seedlings :

Slipped our funny face into another cup and put our recently planted seedlings on top and voila our Tu Bshvat man is born, now we need to be like all gardners keep working by watering our plant and be patient and our Tu Bshvat mans hair will grow.

We also enjoyed a special snack with plenty of fruit that shows another importance of trees. We read the story of Honi and the Carob Tree, where Honi who thought an old man planting a tree was crazy because he would not live long enough to enjoy the shade of the tree, Honi learnt that just like the gardner we need to be patient and realise that what we do today will help others much later on. Like the gardner who reminded Honi that he too found trees that someone else planted 70yrs ago so his grandchildren will enjoy the tree and the fruits that he was planting then.
We too are like trees, we start off like little seeds and grow up an go to Sunday Funday and plant our 'roots' in our synagogue whilst we continue growing until one day you too will bring your children to Sunday Funday and services.

We also learnt a Tu Bshvat song :
TuBshvat song by Judy Caplan Ginsburgh

Let's go plant today, it's a holiday.
Let's go plant a tree
and sing so merrily.
Today is Tu Tu Tu B'shvat
Tu Tu Tu B'shvat
Let's go plant a tree and sing so merrily.
Today is Tu Tu Tu B'shvat,
Tu Tu Tu B'shvat
Let's go plant an sing a song.