THE FESTIVAL OF
TU B'AV begins this evening at sundown. Best wishes to all those celebrating. This is a holiday mentioned in the Mishnah and the Talmud, but for centuries not a great deal was made of it, until it was revived in modern Israel as a kind of Jewish Valentine's Day. In
The Forward, Josefin Dolsten has an article listing the
8 Quirkiest Facts About Tu B’Av — the ‘Jewish Valentine’s Day’ You Never Heard Of. And two posts on the holiday from last year are
here and
here.