The Wish Tree - a new/old Tradition

from this website 
Omikuji: random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines in Japan. They are often tied to a tree....
Literally “sacred lottery”, these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a five-yen coin as it is considered good luck) and by pulling one out randomly from a box that one shakes, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. It is not always that good....


The omikuji falls out of a small hole, scrolled up. (now they also come form a coin-slot machines).  Then you tie it to a tree, pole, or similar.....


People often do this at New Year's...

And then Yoko Ono took this tradition and made it into her idea of a Wish Tree - She supplies slips of paper where guests write their wishes and tie them to a branch of a branch.  Yoko Ono collects all of the wishes when the “piece is done” in an area.  

a Yoko Ono wish tree

Currently well over one million wishes have been tied to her trees!  All of the wishes are being stored in the Imagine Peace Tower that Yoko constructed in Iceland as a tribute to John Lennon’s wish for world peace.  


Here is one of her trees at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC below:



Ono has instructions on her Imagine Peace Tower website so you can create your own wish tree.  

What a great community endeavor!!! A new/old tradition!




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