Tu B’Av, ט״ו באב, is a major Jewish festival and in modern day Israel it is celebrated as a holiday of love and is seen as an auspicious day for weddings.

In the Mishna Tu B’Av was a joyous holiday in the days of the Temple of Jerusalem marking the start of the grape harvest. Unmarried girls dressed in white and danced in vineyards. It also celebrated the wood offering brought to the Temple.

It is celebrated for numerous reasons and one being that after Israelites wandered the desert for forty years girls were able to mix with and marry boys from different tribes and this was on the fifteenth of Av.

Today Tu B’Av marks an informal high to counter the low of the three weeks leading to Tisha B’Av. There are not many rituals associated with Tu B’Av but the Tachanun is not said. If a wedding falls on Tu B’Av the bride and groom will not fast. This is now seen as a romantic Jewish holiday – a great day for weddings, commitment ceremonies, renewal of vows or proposing. A day for romance – singing, dancing and giving flowers.

©️TCfR