When you wish upon a …
Tree?
It’s not the quintessential target of our secret desires, but, hey, Jiminy Cricket doesn’t know everything!
In the UK, a wish might just as easily be cast upon a tree as a star.
Well, maybe not quite as easily, seeing as how there’s a fair amount of pounding involved.
Take a look:
Photo of Wish tree coins in Cumbria, England, by Rosser1954 / Wikimedia.
Curious coin-studded tree trunks can be found throughout the woodlands of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The trees are ancient, long past the days of leafing. Instead, they seem to sprout generations of hopes and dreams in the form of shillings and sixpence. In her published diaries, Queen Victoria mentioned visiting an oak tree festooned with coins on an island in Scotland, and the tradition must have started long before that because a 14th century florin coin was found lodged in another Scottish “wishing” tree.
Who says money doesn’t grow on trees?
Centuries of passersby tapping coins into tree trunks have …
