A wish tree is a tree, usually distinguished by species, location or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. Postulants make votive offerings in hopes of having a wish granted, or a prayer answered, from a nature spirit, saint or goddess, depending on the local tradition.
One form of votive offering is the token offering of a coin. Coin trees are found in parts of Scotland, Northern England, and Wales. [1] Folklorist Ceri Houlbrook observed actions at a coin tree in Aira Force, Cumbria, noting that a succession of at least twelve families passed by the site and decided to hammer coins into it using a piece of limestone lying around; she commented that this custom appeared to offer "little variation: it is imitative, formulaic, homogeneous". [2] In 2019 the National Trust for Scotland said 'For many years people have hammered coins into tree stumps and trunks as some sort of votive offering to make a wish. On our woodland properties we could tolerate it as long as it was on a small-scale, but now it seems to have taken off as a ‘fashionable’ thing to do and is out of control.' [1]
Small strips of cloth, ribbons or prayer beads are tied to some trees as a healing ritual or to wish for good health. These should be material that can easily wither away. Such trees are known as "clootie trees" and are usually found growing beside holy wells (also called clootie wells) or at sacred sites. [9] They are most common in Scotland, Ireland and Cornwall. [10]
The Apple Wassail is a traditional form of wassailing practiced in the West Country, England. Singing wassailers visit the cider orchards, where they recite an incantation, leave wassail-soaked toast in the tree branches, and pour cider over the roots. The purpose of the ceremony is to bless the apple trees and to ensure a good yield and good luck for the harvest. [11]
In a related cultural tradition found in many locations, including the United States, supplicants will toss or hurl shoes into trees that are locally designated as wellsprings of good fortune.
There are many nail trees (called "arbres à clous") in Belgium and other regions, and the practice is based on the ancient popular beliefs that a physical illness (one's evil spirit) could, through a ritual process, be extirpated from the body by driving a nail into these trees.
Since the 1990s the wish tree has played a significant part in many of Yoko Ono's exhibitions. [23] Ono's Wish Tree , installed in the Sculpture Garden of the Museum of Modern Art, New York in July 2010, has become very popular, with contributions from all over the world. Her Wish Tree for Washington, DC at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was installed three years prior.
Fashion Designer Mandali Mendrilla designed a runway collection inspired by Wish Trees called Wish Tree Dress that was presented on the catwalk of the Croatian Fashion Week in June 2015. Mandali also designed an interactive art installation called Mandala of Desires (Blue Lotus Wish Tree) made in peace silk and eco friendly textile ink, displayed at the China Art Museum in Shanghai in November 2015. Visitors were invited to place a wish on the sculpture dress, which will be taken to India and offered to a genuine living Wish Tree. [24] [25]
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A banyan, also spelled banian, is a fig that develops accessory trunks from adjacent prop roots, allowing the tree to spread outwards indefinitely. This distinguishes banyans from other trees with a strangler habit that begin life as an epiphyte, i.e. a plant that grows on another plant, when its seed germinates in a crack or crevice of a host tree or edifice. "Banyan" often specifically denotes Ficus benghalensis, which is the national tree of India, though the name has also been generalized to denominate all figs that share a common life cycle and used systematically in taxonomy to denominate the subgenus Urostigma.
The tradition of wassailing falls into two distinct categories: the house-visiting wassail and the orchard-visiting wassail. The house-visiting wassail is the practice of people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts; this practice still exists, but has largely been displaced by carol singing. The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year. Notable traditional wassailing songs include "Here We Come a-Wassailing", "Gloucestershire Wassail", and "Gower Wassail".
Yakshinis or Yakshis are a class of female nature spirits in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain religious mythologies that are different from Devas and Asuras and Gandharvas or Apsaras. Yakshinis and their male counterparts, the Yakshas, are one of the many paranormal beings associated with the centuries-old sacred groves of India. Yakshis are also found in the traditional legends of Northeastern Indian tribes, ancient legends of Kerala, and in the folktales of Kashmiri Muslims. Sikhism also mentions yakshas in its sacred texts.
Vat Purnima is a Hindu celebration observed by married women in North India and in the Western Indian states of Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat. On this Purnima during the three days of the month of Jyeshtha in the Hindu calendar, a married woman marks her love for her husband by tying a ceremonial thread around a banyan tree. The celebration is based on the legend of Savitri and Satyavan as narrated in the epic Mahabharata.
Kalpavriksha is a wish-fulfilling divine tree in religions like Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. In Buddhism, another term, ratnavṛkṣa, is also common. Its earliest descriptions are mentioned in Sanskrit literature. It is also a popular theme in Jain cosmology and Buddhism.
The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees are a popular shrine in Hong Kong located near the Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po Village, Lam Tsuen. The temple was built around 1768 or 1771, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912).
Trees are significant in many of the world's mythologies, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, observing the growth and death of trees, and the annual death and revival of their foliage, have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth. Evergreen trees, which largely stay green throughout these cycles, are sometimes considered symbols of the eternal, immortality or fertility. The image of the Tree of life or world tree occurs in many mythologies.
A clootie well is a holy well, almost always with a tree growing beside it, where small strips of cloth or ribbons are left as part of a healing ritual, usually by tying them to branches of the tree. Clootie wells are places of pilgrimage usually found in Celtic areas. It is believed the tradition comes from the ancient custom of leaving votive offerings in water. In Scots, a clootie or cloot is a strip of cloth or rag.
Saint Nectan's Glen is an area of woodland in Trethevy near Tintagel, north Cornwall stretching for around one mile along both banks of the Trevillet River. The glen's most prominent feature is St Nectan's Kieve, a spectacular sixty foot waterfall through a hole in the rocks. The site attracts tourists who believe it to be "one of the UK's most spiritual sites," and tie or place ribbons, crystals, photographs, small piles of flat stones and other materials near the waterfall.
Hopea odorata is a species of tree in the plant family Dipterocarpaceae. It is found in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Nang Ta-khian is a female spirit of the folklore of Thailand. It manifests itself as a woman that haunts Hopea odorata trees. These are very large trees known as Ta-khian (ตะเคียน) in Thai, hence her name.
Nang Tani is a female spirit of the Thai folklore. According to folk tradition, this ghost appears as a young woman that haunts wild banana trees, known as in Thai language as Kluai Tani (กล้วยตานี).
Thai folklore is a diverse set of mythology and traditional beliefs held by the Thai people. Most Thai folklore has a regional background for it originated in rural Thailand. With the passing of time, and through the influence of the media, large parts of Thai folklore have become interwoven with the wider popular Thai culture.
Belief in ghosts in Thai culture is both popular and enduring. In the history of Thailand, Buddhist popular beliefs intermingled with legends of spirits or ghosts of local folklore. These myths have survived and evolved, having been adapted to the modern media, such as Thai films, Thai television soap operas, and Thai comics.
A votive offering or votive deposit is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally made to gain favor with supernatural forces.
Sujata, also Sujātā, or Nandabala , was a farmer's wife, who is said to have fed Gautama Buddha a bowl of kheer, a milk-rice pudding, ending his six years of asceticism. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a tree-spirit that had granted her wish of having a child. The gift provided him enough strength to cultivate the Middle Way, develop jhana, and attain Bodhi, thereafter becoming known as the Buddha
Mae Yanang is a spirit guarding boats and various vehicles in Thai, Cambodian, and Laotian cultures. They wear traditional clothes of each respective culture. The tradition of worshipping Mae Yanang comes from the worshipping of female deities such as Mae Phosop and Nang Kwak, which may be derived from the worship of Mazu in Chinese folk religion.
Nang Mai is a ghost from Thai folklore that inhabits a large tree. It builds a palace in the tree, but nobody can see it, and if anyone cuts that tree, the cutter will be cursed, grow sick, or even become crazy.
Thai three-color fabric belief is a symbolic item in Thai culture, often used to represent tradition, spirituality, and connection to the spiritual realm.
