Tu B'Shvat Around The World: Groundhog Day Reflections, A Walk Through Mahane Yehuda Market, Belz Chasidim Apple Toss and Shoving Match (Where's Waldo?)

Chag Sameach!  Tonight and tomorrow we celebrate Tu B'Shvat.  As we commented earlier this week, this least known Jewish holiday is really fun.  No prohibitions that we know of, only eating, drinking, reciting a Tu B'Shvat Haggadah.  Seems like a great way to get ready for Purim, only one month away, and Pesach, only two months away.

Surfing the web, we found some fun ways that Tu B'Shvat is celebrated around the world and we'd like to share them with you.

Singer/songwriter Carol Boyd Leon reflects on the timing of Tu B'Shvat and Groundhog Day - on the hopes for spring expressed as Americans gather in Punxatawney, PA to see if the groundhog won't see its shadow, and hopes for new growth as Israelis plant seedlings.

Her song Groundhog Noses was recorded in 2004 on her Gan Shirim (A Garden of Songs) double album which includes 70 original songs that teach about Jewish holidays, values and more through fun.   

To get in the holiday spirit as we buy dates, figs, and nuts from our local supermarket, let's take a stroll through Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market and see what is probably the world's biggest display of Tu B'Shvat delicacies.

Last year, at Belz headquarters, what looks like thousands of chasidim gathered for a Tu B'Shvat tish with their rebbe.  The scene, posted on YouTube, shows the rebbe at a table in the center of the large hall.  Throngs of followers sit in the bleachers, grabbing apples and other food thrown at them from the floor below. (Where's Waldo?  He's really in the photo -- can you find him?)  

Check out the video below for some good apple catches and a shoving match (at 2:40 in the 6:18 minute video) between some of the participants.