The Legend of the Wishing Tree

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It was a wonderfully sun-filled day last Sunday and hence my friend and I went trekking to a glorious place adjacent to Morecambe Bay generally known as Arnside Knott. Once we commenced our descent a female walker adjacent to to us shouted out I have got one. Frankly I didn't know whether to congratulate her or to phone for a medic. It transpires that she was referring to a penny the intent for which entailing that a child that turned out to be accompanying her would insert it into the bark of a tree. What a weird thing to undertake I said to myself.

Hence on my return home I consulted Wikepedia to see if I may obtain a bit more enlightenment. It turns out that this is quite a widespread practice.  For instance a tree still grows near to Ardmaddy House in Argyll, Scotland, a may tree, that is a species historically associated with fecundity. The trunk and branches remain covered with hundreds of coins that have been driven right through the bark and into the heart. The regional tradition is that a wish will be allowed for each of the small coins so treated.

It appears then the coin in question was to be able to make a wish in what is called a wish tree or wishing tree and that its a ritual which has been followed for generations. The one particular note of warning however is that someone who steals a coin from the tree is likely to get whatever disease the person had who inserted the coin there in the very first instance. Not just trees that are still alive are used, as I have undertaken an in depth tour of public houses I am able to confirm that some pubs, such as the Punch Bowl in Askham, near Penrith in Cumbria, have ancient beams with gaps in them in to which small coins are driven for good fortune.

In addition coin trees arent the only types of wishing trees. You can also find Clootie Trees that appear near to Clootie Wells, they were actually areas of worship in Celtic Celtic areas. They are wells or springs, nearly always containing a tree growing beside them, on which remnants of material or rags have been left, often strapped to the arms of the tree as part of a healing ritual. In Scottish nomenclature, a "clootie" or "cloot" is a strip of cloth or rag. Alternative variants from this around the globe comprise

A tree in Argentina known as Walleechu, festooned with items such as cigars, food, water, fabric, etc., dangling from the branches by showy strips of coloured yarn

The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees may be discovered in Hong Kong. Here blackened joss paper strapped to an orange is thrown into the trees, on the basis that if the paper actually hangs onto 1 of the tree branches, a request should come real.

Eglinton Castle estate has included a wish tree for a great number of years, a yew tree on an outcrop of land in the Lugton Water, nowadays left high and dryon account of the weir giving way.

The Christmas tree is often thought of as being a pagan symbol linked with tree worship, obviously associated with good luck accomplished through offerings (decoration) to and veneration of special trees.

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