The Wisdom and Beauty of Trees
A sermon by Rev. Steven Epperson
February 5, 2012
© 2012 Unitarian Church of Vancouver
The time is significant. Did we notice? We’re just passing through one of nature’s hinge moments. The door of winter began to close last Wednesday and turning, opened its arms to the advent of Spring; do you remember last Wednesday—so full of sun and light? The day seemed perceptibly longer. And the morrow came. Thursday was the pagan festival of Imbolc, noting time’s pendulum swinging from winter to spring. At Imbolc, we ride winter to its crest, and for a moment perch exactly midway twixt Winter Solstice and the Equinox of Spring. In Japan, these days were celebrated with the annual festival of Setsubun. Families and neighbours run from room to room in their homes, from street to shrines, tossing roasted soy beans and calling out Oni wa Soto; Fuku wa Uchi (Devil’s Out! Happiness In!). After the ritual throwing of the beans, you reach down and pick up the number of beans corresponding to your age, and eat them to assure good fortune in the coming year. Reckon this: since December’s Solstice, we’ve already traveled a quarter of the way to Summer! So says I: Hey ho! Here comes Spring, with summer following not far behind. (Neopaganism is in essence the worship of the powers of this world, beautiful or terrible, but all in a circle under the turning sky above, which is One. —C.A. Burland, Echoes of Magic, 1972)
And this week, beginning Tuesday evening, marks the beginning of Tu B’Shevat—where Jewish communities celebrate the swinging of the season from winter to spring in what has become a world-wide environmental festival. According to traditional Jewish custom, the age of a tree was determined by whether it was planted before or on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat, a time when, in Israel, almond trees first begin to blossom. It may seem strange for us in Vancouver to be talking about the advent of spring and flowering trees in the beginning of February—but last Wednesday under the skies, I could read from a book clearly after 5:00pm, something impossible to do even a week ago. And haven’t you noticed the first catkins dangling from birch and willow, the fiery witch hazel and the budding viburnum?
I want to say a few things about Tu B’Shevat. On a civic, public level, it has become an Earth Day celebration in the Jewish community. Individuals, congregations, and civic …
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