The minor holiday of Tu b’Av (the fifteenth day of the month of Av) is primarily described in rabbinic sources as a day of consolation, marking the reconciliation between Israel and God after the destruction of the first Temple, commemorated six days earlier on Tisha b’Av. The Talmud also mentions a ritual in which unmarried women would sing and dance to attract potential husbands. The Talmud explains this ritual with reference to another national tragedy, described at the end of the book of Judges: the bloody civil war between Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes, provoked by a woman’s brutal gang rape by Benjaminite thugs. Shraga Bar-On explains:
This is . . . a great example of the manner in which the talmudic sages tried to shape historical consciousness via creative reinterpretation. One might have imagined that upon the conclusion of the civil war with the tribe of Benjamin, Jewish leaders would have established another Tisha b’Av to mourn this terrible civil war. . . . Instead, they took Tu b’Av and established it as a festival of love in which the tribes join together in matrimony. In this way, they turned enemies into lovers. The rabbis described Tu b’Av as an erotic holiday in which the daughters and sons of Israel go out to the vineyards and have a dance party—and then go home, as one people, as a mixed mosaic of tribes, to marry one another.
Read more on theTorah.com: http://thetorah.com/remedying-biblical-trauma-with-a-festival-of-love/