Loving the Earth is one of the keys to becoming aware of our planet and being able to live taking care of our environment; something that we must do every day, but that we also celebrate on days like the one dedicated to trees. Let’s see now, When is Tree Day 2022 and why is it celebrated?
There are many days that commemorate events that are important to us. Days that we celebrate in style such as Christmas, Thanksgiving or also of course, Father’s Day, but we cannot forget those days dedicated to nature such as Arbor Day.
When is Arbor Day 2022
Arbor Day is a day in which everyone celebrates the trees, the good they do us and the forests are also celebrated in some way. In all countries this Arbor Day occurs, although curiously it is a day that has different dates. In Spain, Arbor Day is celebrated every March 21, coinciding (normally) with the vernal equinox. So that by 2022, this day will fall on a Sunday.
Why is Arbor Day 2022 celebrated?
The Arbor Day party is celebrated as we have mentioned to highlight the importance of trees in our lives. thank the trees we can breathe fresh air, avoid floods or they are also a source of life for many ecosystemswithout forgetting that they supply one of the most important raw materials: wood.
Trees are among the oldest living things on the planet , the oldest known living organism is believed to be a spruce whose roots are 9,550 years old. The roots of the tree, found in Sweden by a group of botanists from the University of Umea, would have been born during the last ice age and are still in place, almost haughtily scrutinizing the drift of the world. Who knows how insignificant we must seem to an organism so ancient that it has witnessed millions of life cycles.
Being so important, they well deserve a day and in Spain Arbor Day is much more important than it seems if we take into account that it is in our country where the first festival dedicated to trees in the world was celebrated. It was in 1805 and in the Extremaduran town of Villanueva de la Sierra (Caceres), as a result of an initiative promoted by the parish priest Ramón Vacas Rojo; a celebration that, by the way, is held in the town on an annual basis every May 22, and is also declared an Asset of Intangible Cultural Interest.1
The Tree festivals in our country spread as a result of that first one that we have mentioned, and for example in Madrid one was created in 1897 in Ciudad Lineal through the Madrid Urbanization Company (CMU). A party that was also very popular over the years and resulted not only in celebrating love and respect for trees, but also schools and students organized special events for Tree Day and even sports competitions, in addition to creating a tree nursery in which more than 100,000 trees were planted.
Secondly, On April 30, 1899 Barcelona celebrated its first Tree Festival organized by the Friends of the Tree Festival Society, founded by the forestry engineer Rafael Puig i Valls, who even launched the magazine Chronicle of the Tree Festival, in which one could find the chronicles of all the tree festivals that took place They celebrated during the year.
It wasn’t until January 5, 1915 when the Tree Festival was finally established throughout the Spanish territory, according to Royal Order of the Ministry of the Interior and a Royal Order of the Ministry of Public Works, so that each town hall had to set the day of celebration through an ordinary session of the municipal plenary session. Then, and following the recommendation of the World Forestry Congress to celebrate an Arbor Day alongside the International Day of Forests in 1969, the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1971 accepted that recommendation and established March 21 to celebrate Arbor Day, a date that we continue to celebrate in Spain as such, but we have already said that in other countries it is celebrated on other dates. For example, in Italis it is celebrated on November 21, in China it is celebrated on March 12 or in many Latin American countries it is celebrated between the months of May, June and July.
How is Arbor Day celebrated?
Arbor Day celebrations in our country may vary depending on each community, city, or municipality that organizes a special celebration. Normally it is the schools that do something special to celebrate Arbor Day also coinciding with the beginning of spring.
Thus, the children’s classes are decorated with giant trees, with murals in which different types of trees and classes are also taught and students learn about nature, ecosystems and the environment.
On a personal basis, us at home, we can make all kinds of crafts with the children to celebrate this day. Crafts such as making a drawing of a tree, in which to write down wishes for the environment or instructions on how to take care of our trees, or also make a tree with felt and fill it with cotton as a special figure to hang at home.
as not, Tree Day can also be a special day to decide to plant trees in our neighborhood or in our municipality. All you have to do is find out if any event is organized in this regard and go with the children to see how a tree is planted and all the care it requires for its growth. In the event that we want to do it at home, if we have a garden, we can plant our own trees and witness with our children how it grows and admire its beauty, in addition to giving thanks for having trees on Earth.