Exciting old/new Holiday!!!!
alentine's Day in the Middle of the Summer?
Forgotten Holiday, Tu B'Av, is a 'New Love Day' That's Been Around
for 4,000 Years
NEW YORK, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- An ancient holiday celebrating love among
singles, Tu B'Av, may have started over 4,000 years ago, but in the United
States, it's being welcomed for the first time this year by young singles
eyeing a soul mate.
A new competitor for our romantic affections, Tu B'Av or August 15th, is
trying to displace St. Valentine's February 14th as the new "love day." But,
unlike Valentine's Day, a time when many American singles hibernate in their
loneliness, Tu B'Av is a day of celebration for unattached people to dance,
rejoice, and, ultimately, find the right person.
Originally, Tu B'Av began in the land of Israel, when single women,
wearing white dresses to symbolize their virginity, purity and simplicity,
went to the fields during August's full moon. There they danced, played
tambourines and waited for the single men to circle around them to find their
match. Today, in Israel, the day is more than ever filled with festivals of
dance, gift-giving, special matchmaking prayers and large outdoor concerts.
Thousands of singles attend these celebrations and it's a field day for
matchmaking services of all types. Today, with the advent of the Internet and
the huge growth of online dating services, it's also becoming a "virtual
field" day for singles looking for serious romance. One such firm, JDate.com,
is offering its own help by having special promotions for this day.
"Instead of flocking to card stores in February, Jewish Americans need to
know they have a holiday of their own to celebrate the power of love," said
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Matchmaker-in-Chief of JDate.com, the largest Internet
dating site with over 125,000 members. "And for singles, we are fortunate to
live in a day and age that one does not have to dance in the fields to meet a
partner, but can simply log-on to the most successful field of Jewish singles
anywhere."
It is expected that this new day of celebratory singles love will have a
positive effect on what can be around February 14th a gloomy time for many out
of luck in love.
"We tend to treat more single people for depression during the Valentine's
Day season than any other time of the year," said Mary Pender Greene, chief of
social work services, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, New York
City. "We hope by bringing awareness of this holiday to Americans, it will
lessen the level of shame among singles during that season, and in turn,
inspire optimism of meeting a soul mate through celebration."
JDate.com, America's premiere online dating service for Jewish singles,
will be introducing the Tu B'Av holiday via an online contest promoting
successful online match-ups, wedding gifts to ALL JDate married couples,
official "Love Day" e-greeting cards, free 24-hour Premium Membership, and
offline singles events.
JDate.com is owned and operated by MatchNet, based in Beverly Hills,
Calif. MatchNet, a public company, owns and operates a world-leading, global
Internet dating service network for singles that consists of an extensive
database of 1.5 million individuals and their interests, likes and dislikes.
MatchNet's technology enables customization of the web interface to languages
and cultures of different countries so that the service appears to be fully
localized through different websites in various countries. The company's
other dating matchmaking sites include AmericanSingles.com,
BritishSingles.co.uk, DeutscheSingles.com and in Australia/New Zealand,
OzeSingles.com.au. The service is further accessible in Europe through
MatchNet's multi-lingual, pan-European singles portal -- EuroSingles.com.
SOURCE JDate.com
-0- 08/09/2000
/CONTACT: Jennifer Goldberg of Rubenstein Associates, 212-843-8272, for
JDate.com/
CO: JDate.com; MatchNet; AmericanSingles.com; BritishSingles.co.uk;
DeutscheSingles.com; OzeSingles.com.au; EuroSingles.com
ST: New York
IN: MLM CPR
SU:
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