A Wishing Tree Tradition

The theory of a wishing tree is similar to a wishing pool. People throw coins to the wishing pool and pray for what they want, and people throw small pieces of papers or small cloth with their wishes written on them.

In fact, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and many other places in China have many wishing trees. The wishing trees are regarded as having a spiritual power that could offer what people wish, such as health, peace, love, family or so on. People look up to the tree as goddess, saint or nature spirit, and they will do specific kinds of ritual of worships depending on the local tradition. Some wishing trees would put spirit tablets, red cloth, and/or censers for religious purposes.