Celebration

What We Have: Jewish Celebration:

Celebration is one of the key areas in which religious approaches have something unique to contribute to environmentalism, since environmental activism is often dour.  Combining a celebration of the natural world and a vision for sustainability adds joy to the work and Judaism has unique celebrations over the course of year and a lifetime that bring people together.  Love of Creation is manifested in celebration. If we celebrate the world we will be inspired to work to save it.

Tu B'Shvat, Jewish Arbor Day and a New Year for the Trees

The Jewish calendar is synchronized with the seasons, and each year on the 15th day of the month of Shevat, just as the almond trees start to bloom in Israel, we celebrate Tu B’shvat, New Year for the trees. 
 
Shalosh Regalim, Pilgrimage Festivals

The Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, (Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles) are the central celebrations of the Jewish calendar were originally intimately related to the cycles of the agricultural year. During the past 2000 years, these meanings have been largely superseded by the historical and theological significance of those festivals, at their core however, is ecological significance.

Communal Celebrations and Lifecycle events

• Personal celebrations, e.g. weddings, b’nai mitzvah, need to be undertaken with sensitivity to the environment.

Where We Are: What is Going on in The Jewish Community Now

 Tu B’shvat
Tu B’shvat has made its mark in schools, synogogues and communities across the world.  There are many diverse celebrations which occur in the week surrounding Tu B’shvat ranging form a Green Kiddush, to a Tu B’shvat Seder and tree planting. 
Go to jewishclimatecampaign.org to submit what how you or your organization celebrate Tu B’shvat.

Holidays

• Canfei Nesharim provides Torah-based activities, program resources, and divei Torah which relate environmental themes to seven different times of the Jewish year: Sukkot and water, Chanukah and energy, Tu b'Shvat and the environment, Purim, Passover, Counting the Omer, and the Three Weeks.

Celebrations

• Jews United for Justice has produced a guide to green celebrations

Vision for the Next Generation: Jewish Celebration

• Tu B'Shvat celebration is expanded as a modern Jewish environmental holiday and celebrated as the New Year for Trees.

• The ecological significance of the holidays and seasons in the Jewish calendar are renewed and integral to the celebration.
• Communities and families celebrate life’s milestone and accomplishments by enriching the natural world.
• To reclaim the ecological significance of Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot, we propose an educational project to renew Pesach as the holiday of spring rebirth, Shavuot as the holiday of harvesting first fruits and Sukkot as the holiday of acknowledging our interdependence with the natural world.  

Jewish Celebration Goals for Generational Change: September 2015

Supporting the vision through Personal and Communal Celebrations

• Propose guidelines to help people make more sustainable decisions when it comes to celebrating a lifecycle or communal event.