Israel celebrates its Valentine's Day, Tu B'Av, at Milan Expo

(ANSA) - Milan, August 3 - Israel celebrated Tu B'Av, the Jewish festival for people in love, at Milan Expo. It is Israel's St Valentine's Day "with the only difference being that during Tu B'Av you can also look for love if you have not yet found it".
    That was the invitation given to young people who went to the pavilion to take part in the festival.
    Tu B'Av is a festival with rural origins that falls on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Av (which corresponds to July-August in the Gregorian calender).
    Traditionally, it is the day that heralds the start of harvesting. "Expo is the perfect place to celebrate Tu B'Av," said Elazar Cohen, the commissioner general of the Israeli pavilion. "In the past the Jewish people lived on the basis of the rhythms of agriculture. Today things have changed and the way of celebrating the festival has changed too. But it is always the festival of love". According to Jewish tradition, it is also the perfect day to get married. "On this day the Jews end a period of three weeks of mourning for the destruction of the first temple (586 BC) and second temple (70 AD), a period in which it is not possible to get married," Cohen explained.
    "So Tu B'Av marks the day when you can enter into wedlock again". During the 'Jewish St Valentine's' the staff of the Israeli pavilion handed out hearts cut in half in a variety of shapes.
    It was only possible to complete them by finding "the other half of the heart" that had been handed out among the visitors to the pavilion. Once the two halves were put back together, the two people in love could kiss on the kiss-spot, a romantic setting on front on the pavilion's now famous "vertical field". The kiss (or a mere hug) was recorded and broadcast in real time on the big screens at the entrance. The pavilion visitors took part in the initiative with enthusiasm, although in most cases they chose to pose at the kiss-spot with their partners and not the person 'destiny' had paired them with. "The important thing is to celebrate love in all its forms," concluded Cohen. "Here at Expo we want to bring a message of love and peace between all human beings.
    "Happy Tu V'Av to everyone".