- Java 8 introduced a new date and time API in the java.time package that is immutable, thread-safe, and supports multiple calendar systems. - The API separates the concepts of date, time, and timestamps (LocalDate, LocalTime, LocalDateTime) from calendar systems and timezones (ZonedDateTime). - The API provides methods to query, manipulate, and convert between date/time objects using static factories, instance methods, and temporal adjusters.