Wish Tree

Wishes on the Spier's Wish Tree in Beith, Scotland

A wish tree is an individual tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. By tradition, believers make votive offerings in order to gain from that nature spirit, saint or goddess fulfillment of a wish.

Practices

Coin trees

Wish tree coins in timber at Aira Force
Hammering coin into Coin Tree at Bolton Abbey

One form of votive offering is the token offering of a coin. The remains of one such tree can be found[1] near Ardmaddy House in Argyll, Scotland, a hawthorn, which is a species traditionally linked with fertility. The trunk and branches are covered with hundreds of coins which have been driven through the bark and into the wood. The local tradition is that a wish will be granted for each of the coins so treated.[2]

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."[5]

Clootie wells

The practice of tying pieces of cloth to a wish tree is often directly associated with nearby clootie wells, as they are known in Scotland and Ireland, or "cloutie" or "cloughtie" in Cornwall.[6]

Alcohol

There are parallels here with wassailing where the Wassail Queen is lifted up into the boughs of the apple tree, where she places toast that has been soaked in Wassail from the Clayen Cup as a gift to the tree spirits to ensure good luck for the coming season's crop and to show them the fruits of what they created the previous year.

Shoe trees

In a related cultural tradition found in many locations, including the United States, supplicant will toss or hurl shoes into trees that are locally designated as wellsprings of good fortune. See Shoe tossing.

Other offerings

Other cultural traditions

Hopea odorata tree (ตะเคียน) stump with offerings near a Nang Ta-khian shrine. Dan Sing Khon.

In art

Yoko Ono

Since the 1990s the wish tree has played a significant part in many of Yoko Ono's exhibitions.[18] 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.

Mandali Mendrilla

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. [19] [20]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6UFDV2
  2. Rodger, Donald, Stokes, John & Ogilve, James (2006). Heritage Trees of Scotland. The Tree Council. P.87. ISBN 0-904853-03-9.
  3. Sharp, Mick (1997). Holy Places of Celtic Britain. Blandford. ISBN 1-85079-315-8. P. 149.
  4. Wilkinson, Gerald (1976). Trees in the Wild. Book Club Associates. P. 108.
  5. Houlbrook 2014, p. 40.
  6. Straffon, Cherly (1998). Fentynyow Kernow. In Search of Cornwall's Holy Wells. Pub. Meyn Mamvro. ISBN 0-9518859-5-2, pp. 40–42.
  7. Glasgow's Hidden Gardens.
  8. MacGeorge, Andrew (1880). Old Glasgow. The Place and the People. Glasgow: Blackie and Son. Page 145.
  9. Wilkinson, Gerald (1976). Trees in the Wild. Book Club Associates. P.26.
  10. Pride, David (1910), A History of the Parish of Neilston. Pub. Alexander Gardner, Paisley. P. 213.
  11. Woodward, Charles & Patricia (2006). Oral communication to Mr. Roger S.Ll. Griffith.
  12. "The Voyage of the Beagle", Chapter IV
  13. Thompson, Harry (2006). This Thing of Darkness. Pub. Headline Review. ISBN 0-7553-0281-8. P. 358.
  14. Spirits
  15. Nang Ta-khian image
  16. 9-year old asked Lady Ta-khian for help (Thai)
  17. 10 อันดับ สถานที่ขอหวย ที่ฮิตมากที่สุด ในประเทศไทย
  18. Wishing in Yoko Ono's Art.
  19. http://wall.hr/fashion/dizajnerica-hrvatskog-podrijetla-mandali-mendrilla-u-najvecem-azijskom-muzeju/
  20. http://formsofdevotion.org/china-art-museum-in-shanghai/

Sources

Billingsley, John (2010). "Coins Inserted in Trees". FLS News. London: The Folklore Society. 60: 7. 
Curtis, Mavis (2004). "Coins in Fallen Trees". FLS News. London: The Folklore Society. 42: 14. 
Gould, Cathy (2010). "Coins Inserted in Trees". FLS News. London: The Folklore Society. 60: 7. 
Hartland, Edwin S. (1893). "Pin-wells and Rag-bushes". Folklore. London: The Folklore Society. 4 (4): 451–470. doi:10.1080/0015587x.1893.9720181. 
Houlbrook, Ceri (2014). "The Mutability of Meaning: Contextualizing the Cumbrian Coin-Tree". Folklore. London: The Folklore Society. 125 (1): 49–59. doi:10.1080/0015587x.2013.837316. 
Patten, B.; Patten, J. (2009). "Coins Inserted in Trees". FLS News. London: The Folklore Society. 59: 2. 
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