TREES NEW YEAR

  It is a tradition to plant trees on Tu bi-Shvat. Planting trees is for the future. And who except of our children should do this? Just so decided the participants of programs CAC (Children' s Art Center) and Mazl Tov and started preparations for the holiday on 4th of February. Children made and designed flowerpots for planting trees.
  Then they went to an excursion to botanical gardens and after it they turned into smudgy gardeners and began planting seeds of etrog and date.
  On February 11 all children gathered in the big hall of Hesed, where they continued the holiday. They sang with karaoke accompanying themselves on "musical" makeshifts (spoons, newspapers, and plastic bags), a kind of percussion band.
Meanwhile, their parents were listening for some interesting information and watching video about the holiday. Later in the framework of Seder they participated in quizzes, guessed riddles and sang songs. The tables were laid according to the Jewish tradition and it wasn't necessary to invite the people, everybody, children and their parents were pretty hungry.
  The most active participants won prizes, and many of them planted their "own tree" at home.
  Nobody knows who this young gardener becomes in the future?

  Food programs

  The clients celebrated Tu bi-Shvat in 8 Warm Homes, cafes and cafeterias of Almaty.
  Iraida Khachshanskaya, received 12 people, Stalina Ponyatovskaya and Lyudmila Lebedinskaya received the same amount of guests. There were 11 people in Galina Auezova's Warm Home, 57 were in the cafeteria "Orion", 29 - in cafe "Orion", 36 - in restaurant "Brno" and 9 came to celebrate the holiday in cafe "Ak-Kain". Volunteers Tatyana Levenverg and Valentina Sokolkova, Nellya Nazaraliyeva and Tatyana Minster, Svetlana Golovina and Oxana Tkachyova gave a lecture about tradition of celebrating The New Year of the Trees.
  What is a holiday without playing national music? Everybody enjoyed the ensemble "Nekhama". After that there was a tableful according to the holiday tradition.

  Volunteers celebrated the New Year of trees on 7 of February in the hall of Hesed Polina. On regular classes in the framework of he program "Jewish World" the volunteer Tamara Ilyina told about the history of 15 Shvat holiday, about traditions of Tu bi-Shvat. The ensemble "Hekhama" performed songs dedicated to the holiday. Everybody enjoyed songs in Yiddish performed by the doctor-volunteer Iona Tsykassov.
  The head of volunteers group Galina Onichko commended the best volunteers: Vera Kodintseva, Larissa Tkachenko, Lilya Shashkina and Eduard Reisman.
  And by the end of the evening everybody could try traditional Tu bi-Shvat dishes.

  For the first time the inhabitants of Burunday and Kaskelen villages could celebrate the holiday owing to the program "Hesed on Wheels". 28 people gathered in Warm homes (Yelena Butenko, 20 participants, Olga Getmanovich, 8 participants) and enjoyed Tu bi-Shvat. The children between 2-10 were listening to Natalya Ilyina, the head of the program Mazl Tov, story about why isThe New Year of the Trees celebrated on 15 Shvat. Valeriy Berkman, the Head of the Program "Hesed On Wheels", gave the information about the holiday tradition.
  All participants were really impressed with the videocassette "Israel in dance".

TU BI-SHVAT IN SHYMKENT

  Tu bi-Shvat is a holiday of trees. Jewish people in Israel and all over the world celebrate it with a great joy. That day there was a meeting in the club "Khozyayushka" in Jewish Community Center in Shymkent. The members of the club were cooking a traditional for this holiday dish called "Date fingers". This is very delicious and very unusual dessert. It is called "date fingers" because the pastries have the form of dates. Actually people always have a good time in that club even there is no any holiday. Women communicate with each other, tell some stories, creating a warm atmosphere.

Oxana Chernya'eva, Alexey Istomin