The Wishing Project
Wishing Traditions Around the World
Wishing Tree
Yoko Ono: "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."
The Wish Tree has been a part of many exhibitions by Yoko Ono since the 1990s. People are invited to write their wish on a piece of paper and hang it to a tree branch. It's like a collective prayer in a way. Some wishes are deeply personal, some global wishes for peace and better future for humankind.
In Hong Kong, the Tin Hau Temple (Goddess of the Sea) was built in 1736 near Tai Po in Lam Tsuen; locals come to the temple for guidance by shaking the prediction box, especially fishing folks. Next to the Tin Hau Temple, is the magnificent Wishing Tree where people write wishes on colorful papers and throw them into the air to catch on the tree, it will mean the wishes are granted.
The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees are located in Hong Kong near the Tin Hau Temple in Lam Tsu. Tourists and the locals frequent two banyan trees during the Lunar New Year. Previously, they burnt joss sticks, wrote their wishes on joss paper tied to an orange, then threw them up to hang in these trees, believing that if the paper successfully hung onto one of the tree branches, their wishes would come true.
