Arbor Day is a special day when people and groups are encouraged to plant trees. Many countries around the world celebrate this holiday today. Although it is usually celebrated in the spring, the exact date changes based on local climate and the best time for planting trees.

Origins and history

The Spanish village of Mondoñedo held the first recorded tree-planting festival in the world in 1594. The mayor organized the event, and the area is still called Alameda de los Remedios. It continues to have lime and horse-chestnut trees. A simple granite marker and a bronze plate remember the festival. In 1805, the small Spanish village of Villanueva de la Sierra held the first modern Arbor Day. A local priest started the event, and the whole village supported it.

— Miguel Herrero Uceda, Arbor Day

The first American Arbor Day was started by J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City, Nebraska, during a meeting of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture in Lincoln. On April 10, 1872, about one million trees were planted in Nebraska.

In 1883, the American Forestry Association chose Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut to lead a group that promoted Arbor Day across the United States. Northrop shared the idea with other countries when he visited Japan in 1895 and gave a speech about Arbor Day and improving villages. He also shared his support for Arbor Day with people in Australia, Canada, and other European countries.

Starting in 1906, Pennsylvania conservationist Major Israel McCreight of DuBois, Pennsylvania, said President Theodore Roosevelt’s speeches about saving forests were only for people in the logging business. He suggested teaching children about conservation and creating a national plan for education on saving forests. McCreight asked Roosevelt to speak to school children about trees and the harm caused to American forests. Gifford Pinchot, the head of the United States Forest Service, agreed with McCreight and asked the president to talk to students about conservation. On April 15, 1907, Roosevelt gave an "Arbor Day Proclamation to the School Children of the United States" about the importance of trees and the need to teach forestry in schools. Pinchot later wrote to McCreight, "We will all thank you for suggesting this."

Observance by country

Algeria celebrates Arbor Day on October 25. Children learn about trees, and tree planting events are held. In 2025, a campaign was started to plant one million trees.

Australia has celebrated Arbor Day since 1889, with the first event in Adelaide on June 20. National Schools Tree Day happens on the last Friday of July, and National Tree Day is on the last Sunday of July. Many states have Arbour Day, but Victoria has Arbour Week, suggested by Premier Rupert (Dick) Hamer in the 1980s.

In Flanders, International Day of Tree Planting is celebrated on or around March 21. It is a theme day or educational day, not a public holiday. Sometimes, tree planting is combined with cancer awareness events called Kom Op Tegen Kanker.

In Brazil, Arbor Day (Dia da Árvore) is celebrated on September 21. It is not a national holiday, but schools nationwide hold environment-related activities, such as tree planting.

In the Virgin Islands, Arbour Day is celebrated on November 22. The National Parks Trust of the Virgin Islands sponsors the holiday, which has been celebrated since the 1950s. Activities include an annual poetry competition and tree planting ceremonies.

Cambodia celebrates Arbor Day on July 9 with a tree planting ceremony attended by the king.

Arbor Day was founded by Sir George William Ross, who later became the premier of Ontario. Ross, while serving as the minister of education in Ontario (1883–1899), created Arbour Day to teach children about caring for school grounds and to inspire patriotism. This happened before Don Clark of Schomberg, Ontario, claimed to start the day in 1906 for his wife, Margret Clark. In Canada, National Forest Week is the last full week of September, and National Tree Day (Maple Leaf Day) is on the Wednesday of that week. Ontario celebrates Arbour Week from the last Friday in April to the first Sunday in May. Prince Edward Island celebrates Arbour Day on the third Friday in May during Arbour Week. Calgary has the longest-running civic greening project, Arbour Day, celebrated on the first Thursday in May. On this day, every Grade 1 student in Calgary receives a tree seedling to plant at home.

National Tree Planting Day is on July 22.

In Chile, "Día del Árbol" was celebrated on June 28, 2022, as defined by the Environment Ministry.

In the Republic of China, Arbor Day (植樹節) was founded by forester Ling Daoyang in 1915. The Beiyang government’s Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce first celebrated Arbor Day in 1915. In 1916, the government decided all provinces would celebrate Arbor Day on April 5, the same day as the Qingming Festival. In 1929, the Nationalist government changed Arbor Day to March 12 to honor Sun Yat-sen, a leader who supported tree planting. After the government moved to Taiwan in 1949, Arbor Day continued to be celebrated on March 12.

In the People’s Republic of China, the Fifth National People’s Congress in 1979 passed a resolution to establish Arbor Day on March 12. The resolution required every citizen aged 11 to 60 to plant three to five trees yearly or do equivalent work. Couples often plant a tree the day before Arbor Day to mark the start of their marriage and the life of the tree.

National Tree Planting Day is on November 6.

In Mexico, "Día del Árbol" is on June 15. In Spain, "Día de los Árboles" is on April 29. In Argentina, "Día del Árbol" was first observed on October 10, 1904, and is now celebrated on June 21.

In the Czech Republic, Arbor Day is on October 20. In Jamaica, Arbor Day is on January 15. In Germany, Arbor Day ("Tag des Baumes") is on April 25. Its first celebration was in 1952.

Van Mahotsav is an annual tree-planting festival in India, held during a week in July. It began in 1950 and was inspired by a successful tree-planting event in Delhi in 1947. Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Dr. Rajendra Prasad participated. The festival encourages people to plant trees and protect forests.

In Iran, "National Tree Planting Day" is on the fifteenth day of the month Esfand, which is usually March 5. This day marks the start of "Natural Recyclable Resources Week" (March 5–12). People receive saplings for different climates and learn how to plant trees.

The Jewish holiday Tu Bishvat, the new year for trees, is on the 15th day of the month of Shvat, which usually falls in January or February. Originally tied to calculating the age of fruit trees, the holiday is now often celebrated by planting trees or eating dried fruits like raisins, figs, dates, and nuts. In Israel, schools often go on tree-planting trips.

In Italy, Arbor Day is on November 21. In Japan, a similar holiday called Greenery Day is on May 4.

Historically, Kenya celebrated National Tree Planting Day on April 21. People planted palm and coconut trees along the Indian Ocean coast to honor Prof. Wangari Maathai, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work in planting trees. With a new campaign to plant 15 billion trees by 2032, Kenya launched National Tree Growing Day. The first public holiday was November 13, 2023, and the second was May 10, 2024, with a goal to plant one billion trees in a single day.

North Korea celebrates "Tree Planting Day" on March 2. People plant trees nationwide to combine traditional Asian values with Communist ideology.

In South Korea, Arbor Day (Singmogil or Sikmogil) was a public holiday until 2005. Even though it is no longer an official holiday, people still plant trees on April 5.

National Tree Planting Day is usually on March 21, depending on the lunar cycle.