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TU B’SHVAT – The New Year of the Trees

Tu B’Shvat is a Jewish holiday that marks the New Year of the Trees, traditionally observed in late January or early February, according to the Hebrew calendar. It arrives during midwinter, at a time when trees appear dormant but are beginning their internal renewal.

In our home, this became a moment in the year devoted specifically to noticing trees — their forms, their stories, and their essential role in sustaining life.

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When the children were young, we approached this simply and visually. We explored trees from around the world, learned about ancient and unusual trees, and created art inspired by their shapes and structures. Some years we made family trees, art trees, and wax trees. There were several years when the kids kept weather trees. Every year we prepared haroset together, grounding the celebration in food and shared ritual.

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As the children grew older, our conversations expanded. We experimented with elements of a Tu B’Shvat seder, talked about the science of trees, and returned to these ideas later through botany studies. What began as wonder and observation gradually deepened into understanding, without losing its sense of reverence.

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This page is shared as a learning story — a record of how Tu B’Shvat was lived over many years as a seasonal practice centered on trees, rooted in family life, art-making, cultural tradition, and an evolving relationship with the natural world.

STORIES THAT LIVED WITH US

Stories shaped our seasonal life as deeply as hands-on work. These are some of the books that lived with us during this time.

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  • The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

  • A Tree is Nice by Janice May Udry

  • The Sultan's Perfect Tree by Jane Yolen

  • Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

  • Happy Birthday, Tree! A Tu B'Shevat Story by Madelyn Rosenberg

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SOME OF OUR FAVORITE TREES

As with many of our seasonal explorations, this list grew as an answer to the many questions the kids had about trees: What is the biggest tree? The tallest? The strangest? The oldest? Over the years, we returned again and again to a small group of trees that captured the kids’ imaginations — trees that felt extraordinary because of their age, scale, resilience, or sheer oddness. The list that follows isn’t meant to be comprehensive or instructional. It’s simply a record of the trees they still remember, the ones that helped anchor their curiosity and gave shape to our shared sense of wonder about the living world.

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The Giant Sequoia (California Redwood)

  • around 2000+ years old

  • tallest trees in the world

  • General Sherman / 2500 years old / largest tree in the world

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The Pando (Quaking Aspen in Utah)

  • huge colony of a single aspen tree spread out over 100 acres

  • they all share one root system

  • The Pando is the heaviest living thing on Earth

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The Pirangi Cashew Tree (Brazil)

  • 180+ years old and covers two acres of land

  • when its branches touch the ground, it automatically puts down roots and keeps growing.

  • no other cashew tree grows like this

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The Tree of Life (Middle East)

  • grows in the Bahrain desert, hundreds of miles from another other tree

  • it is 400 years old

  • It survives because its roots go very deep

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Baobab Tree (Namibia, Southern Africa)

  • called the upside down tree

  • stores water inside its trunk to survive drought

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Methuselah (Great Basin in California)

  • Bristlecone Pine

  • ~ 4800 years old

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Rainbow Eucalyptus (Papua New Guinea)

  • You have to see it to believe it!

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Joshua Tree (Mojave Desert, California)

  • Is actually a yucca

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Tule Tree (Mexico)

  • Montezuma Cypress

  • ~ 2000 years old

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El Drago Milenario (Canary Islands, Spain)

  • It is the largest and oldest living specimen of a dragon tree

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Old Tjikko (Sweden)

  • is an approximately 9,600-year-old Norway spruce

  • the visible trunk is only a few hundred years old, the root system has survived for nearly 10 millennia

  • considered the world's oldest tree

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