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The old coins that park employees found wedged into trees weren't the result of saving gone awry. Instead, they were fundamental to the history of Britain's Wishing Trees.

Most people have tossed a coin into a fountain, or dropped a penny down a wishing well, hoping by some miracle that the act would make their wish come true. In the touristy village of Portmeirion, located in Gwynedd, North Wales, staff noticed some peculiar trees covered with coins. By examining the trees and learning their origin, the employees brought to light information about the traditions and superstition surrounding wishing trees.

Beginning with their discovery of a felled, coin-coated tree, employees quickly noticed seven more nearby and thus began their investigation. Eventually they found out that townspeople and tourists were following the centuries-old tradition of using the trees as wishing trees.

According to beliefs that date back to the beginning of the 18th century, one could rid herself of an illness by sticking a coin into a wishing tree so that the tree would assume the illness. If a person pulled one of the wishing tree's coins out, he would become ill. Others thought that they would be granted a wish once the coin was driven past the bark and into the tree's wood.

At Portmeirion, the coins are found in beech and holly trees, both of which are sturdy and difficult to press into. Coin wishing trees have also popped up in other parts of England and in other European countries. Modern takes on the wishing tree includes hanging trinkets, colorful fabrics or written wishes and worries from the branches. The wishing tree concept is one that has existed in much of the world.

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The Fascinating History Of Great Britain's Wishing Trees

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Most people have tossed a coin into a fountain, or dropped a penny down a wishing well, hoping by some miracle that the act would make their wish come true. In the touristy village of Portmeirion, located in Gwynedd, North Wales, staff noticed some peculiar trees covered with coins.

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Seen everywhere from Rome, to Ukraine, to Paris, the tradition of placing padlocks on bridges to symbolize love has finally appeared on New York's Brooklyn Bridge.

Started some time in the 1990s, the tradition of locking engraved padlocks has proliferated around Europe to the point that it has become a serious form of vandalism in certain cities. The symbolic act often sees a couple mark their name on a standard padlock and affix it to a piece of public infrastructure (usually a bridge or fence) and then throw the key away (often into the water under the bridge). The unlockable symbol is now free to represent the couple's love for as long as the public site remains (or until the city sends officials out to cut the locks off, which is likely a more accurate representation of a relationship's duration). The ritual is not dissimilar from carving initials into a tree, but when there aren't very many trees, a historic suspension bridge will have to do.

Since the locks are damaging to the bridge, they are regularly removed. However, a group of lock pickers has been active in working to remove them first and preserve them rather than have them discarded.

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Seen everywhere from Rome, to Ukraine, to Paris, the tradition of placing padlocks on bridges to symbolize love has finally appeared on New York's Brooklyn Bridge. Started some time in the 1990s, the tradition of locking engraved padlocks has proliferated around Europe to the point that it has become a serious form of vandalism in certain cities.

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Paris is the city of love, so it's fitting that the French capital has several thriving love lock locations.

Love locks - a modern 'tradition' whereby sweethearts inscribe their names or initials on a padlock, attach it to a public structure, and throw away the key, permanently sealing their love - used to adorn the Pont des Arts, the footbridge that crosses the Seine from the Left Bank to the Louvre, as well as the Pont de l'Archevêché, in the shadow of Notre Dame Cathedral.

Several years ago, following political discussions about whether the locks were an eyesore or detrimental to the integrity of the city's architecture, the Pont des Arts was mysteriously cleared one night and locks are now routinely removed from various locations around the city.

Many locals consider the lovelocks to be a serious problem that threaten bridges and other important landmarks due to the accumulated weight of the locks. However, in June of 2014, part of the Pont des Arts bridge had to be closed when one of its metal grills collapsed, lugged down by the locks. In May of 2015, the city council decided to remove all of them (45 tonnes in total) and install panels to prevent people from fixing new ones.

Of course, tourists bemoan the removal of the love locks, complaining that this is a loved Parisian tradition. However, it is perhaps worth remembering that The Pont des Arts was built under the reign of Napoleon I, and love locks only started appearing in 2008!

Of course, love locks haven't disappeared from the bridges over the Seine. Indeed, padlock and permanent marker pen vendors do a thriving trade on and alongside the bridges. However, lovers beware, city authorities often remove locks from landmarks, breaking them, and perhaps breaking the love the locks were supposed to secure?
Update 2016: The locks were cut off the bridge for safety purposes.

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Paris is the city of love, so it's fitting that the French capital has several thriving love lock locations.

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Where Yoko Ono's Wish Tree Wishes go....

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Where Yoko Ono's Wish Tree Wishes go....

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WISH TREES

"As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people's wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar."
Yoko Ono: 'All My Works Are A Form Of Wishing'

Yoko Ono's interactive artwork WISH TREE (1996) has been integral to many of her exhibitions around the world in museums and cultural centers where people have been invited to write their personal wishes for peace and tie them to a tree branch.

Yoko continues to collect all the wishes from her Wish Trees from all over the world - currently totaling over a million. They are preserved and their messages continue on in the Wishing Well of IMAGINE PEACE TOWER - to send their power out the world and to the Universe.

Interview with Yoko Ono

Q: When did the "Wish Tree" happen for the first time?
YO: I don't remember exactly when. It's after 1981, after John, my husband's passing.
Q: Every city could have a "Wish Tree!"
YO: When they did it in Finland they said one tree was not enough. Because the wish was becoming much larger than one tree.
They added so many trees it became like a mini-forest. You suddenly see very strong emotions of people coming out. It is fantastic. I'm keeping all the wishes from all the countries, although I never read any of them. I feel it's not right to read people's private wishes.
Q: It's a growing archive?
YO: It's not an archive. I'll tell you what's going to happen: every piece of paper has a wish on it, I don't read it, and all of them will be put in one big tower of a sculpture, like a totem. It will be a very powerful sculpture... a tower which contains wishes of the
people of the world of our time. All in one tower!
Q: In terms of the energy!
YO: Yes. People's wishes! So that's why I'm keeping them.

Interview with Yoko Ono, 1996

"I have saved all the wishes people made and hung on my work, called 'Wish Tree' in many different countries. The number of those wishes I collected and kept has now reached over a million. They are preserved and their messages continue on in the Wishing Well of IMAGINE PEACE TOWER - to send their power out the world and to the Universe. I hope IMAGINE PEACE TOWER will give light to the strong wishes of World Peace from all corners of the planet and give encouragement, inspiration and a sense of solidarity in a world now filled with fear and confusion. Let us come together to realize a peaceful world. I consider myself very fortunate to see the dream my husband and I dreamed together become reality."

Yoko Ono, 2007

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WISH TREES "As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people's wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar."

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Yoko Ono's participatory artwork "Wish Tree for Washington, DC" (2007) is open for the summer at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. For most of the year, visitors are invited to whisper their wishes to the tree, a white flowering dogwood in the museum's collection. But during the summer through Labor Day, they may write their wishes on paper tags and tie them to the tree's branches.

"As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree," Ono has written. "Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people's wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar."

"The wishes are whatever our visitors want them to be, serious or lighthearted, trivial or profound. Many people wish for peace," said Melissa Chiu, Hirshhorn's director.

Several times a week, Hirshhorn staffers remove the hundreds of wishes from the tree and box them for shipment to the artist. Eventually they will be housed at the site of Ono's "IMAGINE PEACE TOWER" in Reykjavik, Iceland. More than a million wishes from various trees around the world have been collected so far.

"Wish Tree for Washington, DC" has been in the Hirshhorn's collection since it was donated by the artist in 2007.

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Yoko Ono's participatory artwork "Wish Tree for Washington, DC" (2007) is open for the summer at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. For most of the year, visitors are invited to whisper their wishes to the tree, a white flowering dogwood in the museum's collection.

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A Yearly Rendezvous

Tanabata, or the star festival, is observed on July 7. As the date approaches, long, narrow strips of colorful paper known as tanzaku, vibrant ornaments, and other decorations are hung from bamboo branches, enlivening the decor of homes as well as brightening shopping arcades, train stations, and other public spaces. Before they are hung, tanzaku are inscribed with a wish, such as a child's dream of becoming a famous soccer player or a parent's hope for career success.

Tanabata is one of Japan's five traditional seasonal festivals, or gosekku, originating in China and first observed in Japan by the ancient imperial court. The stellar holiday centers on the stars Vega and Altair in the constellations Lyra and Aquila, respectively. Following the ancient Chinese lunar calendar, the festival marks the once-yearly meeting of Orihime (Vega), the weaver star and patron of silk farming, and Hikoboshi (Altair), the cowherd star and agricultural messenger.

According to the folktale, Orihime, a gifted weaver, and Hikoboshi, a hard-working cow herder, began to neglect their duties upon being wed. The couple incurred the wrath of the bride's father Tentei, the emperor of heaven, and were exiled to separate ends of the Milky Way. They are granted a meeting each July 7 so long as they both diligently fulfill their celestial obligations during the other days of the year.

The legend behind the star festival first crossed over to Japan from China during the Nara period (710-94) in the form of a weaving festival for young women aspiring to bolster their talents on the loom. The story merged with the Japanese legend of tanabata-tsume, the tale of a celestial maiden who weaves clothes for the gods, as well as other native cultural aspects to produce a unique Chinese-infused Japanese tradition.

Wishing on a Star

When tanabata first arrived in Japan aristocrats in the imperial court would hold poetry contests to celebrate the festival, writing verses as they gazed up at the stars. It wasn't until the Edo period (1603-1868) that the star festival was observed among the broader populace. It was during this period that the tradition of writing wishes on tanzaku and hanging them from branches of bamboo appeared.

The expression of hopes and dreams is not limited to tanzaku. Traditional decorations and talismans include colorful streamers called fukinagashi that represent threads for those wanting to be better weavers and gossamer amikazari symbolizing wishes by fishermen for full nets. There are also hanging kinchaku bags for prosperity and orizuru (folded cranes) for longevity. Items are easily constructed from origami and other light, colorful materials. In the past, ornament-laden bamboo branches were placed in rivers to be carried away by the current as a means of ensuring that wishes would be granted. However, modern environmental consciousness has seen this tradition largely fall by the wayside.

Bamboo is thought to have become a part of the tanabata tradition for its propensity to grow straight and tall, with upward stretching branches bearing wishes to heaven on the wind. The plant was also believed to ward off insects and was displayed to protect rice crops and symbolize hopes of a bountiful harvest.

New and Old Faces

The traditional fare of the star festival is sōmen. The long, thin noodles evolved from a woven Chinese sweet known in Japanese as sakubei, whose intertwined strands were thought to resemble both the Milky Way and the weaving threads worked by Orihime. S ōmen is commonly enjoyed in a light dipping sauce. Many parents will amuse their children by topping noodles with star-shaped slices of boiled okra.

The timing of tanabata celebrations varies by region. Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1872, placing the holiday on July 7. However, many areas still rely on traditional reckoning to schedule festivities, with observances normally falling sometime in August.

Three of the largest tanabata festivals are the Sendai Tanabata Matsuri in Miyagi Prefecture, the Shōnan Hiratsuka Tanabata Matsuri in Kanagawa Prefecture, and the Anjō Tanabata Matsuri in Aichi Prefecture. One of the Tōhoku region's most vibrant summer celebrations, the Nebuta Festival, is also said to have its roots in the star festival. The parade of intricate illuminated floats in this event is thought to have begun as a purification ritual where lanterns were released into rivers and the sea on the evening of tanabata.

Enjoying these popular events will require early planning to beat the crowds. However, there are also many small, regional star festival celebrations as well as special events at various venues, such as Tokyo Disneyland and Minami-Tenma Park in Osaka.
(Banner Photo: People enjoy the decorations at the Sendai Tanabata Matsuri. © Jiji.)

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According to legend, each July 7 the weaver star and cowherder star traverse the Milky Way to renew their ancient bond of love. In Japan, the lovers are celebrated with lively decorations and wishes written on long, narrow strips of colored paper.

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The Scots word 'clootie' means 'cloth' and this term can also be found in use in the famous Scottish dessert, the ' clootie dumpling'. The 'cloots' of the clootie well are scraps of cloth hung from trees surrounding a sacred well or spring. These sources of clean water have been places of healing for millennia, with ancient Celtic beliefs in spirits and nature being absorbed by the Christian church, and sprites and local gods replaced with saints.

Traditionally, the well would be visited at special times of the year, such as Beltane, the May Day festival of Spring, or when someone needed a cure for an illness. The well would draw people from across the local area, a social pilgrimage, each taking their turn to dip their cloth offering in the water and say a prayer, before affixing it to a tree or bush. Closely linked with good health, the pilgrims would hope for a good year ahead. Those afflicted with an illness or injury would wash an affected area with water from the well, then attach their cloth to the tree, the idea being that as it rotted and faded away so did their affliction.

The Clootie Well is mentioned by several historical writers and collectors of folklore and tradition. Writing in his 1869 Book of Days, Robert Chambers mentioned a well to the east of the current Munlochy site, called Craigach Well, in Avoch. He describes the scene on the first Sunday of May as 'like a fair', with English, Scots, and Gaelic all spoken as the pilgrims made their offerings, also noting that each person drank from the well. Thomas Pennant made two famous journeys around Scotland and in 1769 recorded that he saw many such places 'tapestried with rags'.

Clootie wells are not just present in Scotland, however, with examples being known in Cornwall and Ireland. This suggests a Celtic Iron Age origin for the tradition, although there are other examples of trees decorated with ribbons and scraps of cloth - such as the Evenki people's 'Shaman trees' far away in Siberia, or Tibetan prayer flags - perhaps suggesting an even earlier shared origin. People across the world still hang objects which carry meaning to them, a perfect example being the ' love locks' that until recently adorned the Pont des Arts in Paris - a modern phenomenon with echoes of older traditions.

In 1581, Scotland introduced an Act of Parliament which made pilgrimage to a holy well illegal, and the practice began to diminish. The wells to survive this ban were those reassociated with Christian saints, such as Saint Boniface Curitan at Munlochy, and the thousands of visitors to these surviving holy wells were of great financial benefit to both the local church and economy.

Another well, close to Inverness in Culloden Woods, was poignantly decorated with many coloured ribbons and rags when the 51st Highland Division was lost during the Dunkirk evacuations in 1940, demonstrating how an ancient practice still had meaning in recent times.

In today's world, the predominance of synthetic non-biodegradable fibres, such as nylon, have meant that the cloots are no longer decaying as they once did. The ready availability of cheap clothing has also meant that the cloots are much larger than they traditionally were, with whole items of clothing and children's toys being tied to the trees. As it is considered very bad luck to remove a cloot, these stay hanging, with the authorities reluctant to remove them.

If you do visit a clootie well, remember to bring your own rags or scraps of cloth to hang; the Forestry Commission recommends you only hang offerings made from wool or cotton.
Munlochy Clootie Well, The Black Isle, Scotland

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The Scots word 'clootie' means 'cloth' and this term can also be found in use in the famous Scottish dessert, the ' clootie dumpling'. The 'cloots' of the clootie well are scraps of cloth hung from trees surrounding a sacred well or spring.