Nature's incredible wonders with its magic of trees

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Hello,

Welcome back. If you’re a first time visitor, I’m Danika, a friend of Tressi’s. She and I share a love of nature and trees. You can first meet Tressi and her friend Ralph in samantha-the-legend-of-the-whispering-trees. In this book, she shares her knowledge of trees. Tressi’s love of nature helped her to share exciting tips for kids to get outdoors and love nature. You can find her ideas to inspire children to get outdoors in tressis-ten-tips-for-kids-how-to-play-and-love-trees-and-nature Now, she’s asked me to start at answering questions about trees. Welcome to the first: Danika Talks Trees. I’ll be answering questions about trees. I bet that you’ll find many news things about trees that you never imaged were true about trees.

Have you watch a falling star and made a wish?

Well, there are other ways to make your wishes.

Do you know about wish trees?

If not, they are fantastic.

A wish tree is an individual tree that comes in in many species and appearances. There is one thing that makes them unique. What is that one thing that makes wish trees different? They possess a particular religious or spiritual value. The tradition for wish trees believers to make votive offerings, which is a votive candle or some other item that symbolizes a desire or wish.

You find wish trees in many countries from Scotland to India.


There are many sacred trees in Hong Kong, but the Wishing Tree of Lam Tsuen Village is the largest and most famous. If you visit this tree, you write your wish on a piece of paper called a Ng Bo Diep, tie it to the citrus fruit and then throw it as high as you could up into the tree. If your fruit lands high in the branches, you were in luck.

 

 

 

 

There are many smaller spirit trees throughout the Hong Kong countryside.  They can be banyan

 

 

 

 

or camphor 

 

 

 

 

 

trees with their large aerial roots that twist and curve into strange and unusual shapes, it is easy to imagine that these amazing roots have special powers.

In Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, people hang lai see packets (lucky money envelopes)

 

 

 

 

 

on small kumquat trees in front of doorways.  People believe that these lucky envelopes will help bring good luck into their home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Zealand has a famous Wishing Tree in the Rotoma Hills near the Bay of Plenty. People place gifts and money in the tree’s hollow trunk and hope their wishes get granted. There is also a belief that the tree can even influence the weather for travelers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In India, there is a legend about a magic kalpataru tree.  It is said the kalpataru will grant anything a person desires from it.

Learn

Guatemala, the ancient Mayans, believed that the Ceiba. It’s a tall rainforest tree with hundreds of inch-long spikes—could grant wishes. Ceibas were considered to be links between heaven and earth. Even today, Mayans make wishes and leave offerings of candles and food at the trunks of large ceiba trees.

 

 

 

 

And, the Burmese believe that Nat spirits live in some of the oldest, grandest trees. The Nats protect these trees, and people leave offerings for the trees and guardian Nats in hopes that their wishes will be granted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is a Nat?
Nat, 
in Burmese folk religion, is any of a group of spirits probably pre-Buddhist. And the Nats are a group collectively called the “thirty-seven. They are capable of protecting the believer when kept properly pacified, but they can cause harm when offended or ignored.

And please share this with all the children in your life.

 

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Judy Kundert

Judy Kundert, a recipient of the Marquis Who’s Who Excellence in Authorship award, loves storytelling, from folk and fairy tales to classics for elementary school children. She authors award-winning middle-grade novels designed to inspire and intrigue children. After she left her career as a United Airlines stewardess, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University, Chicago and a Master of Arts from DePaul University, Chicago. Most recently, she completed a master’s Certificate in Public Relations and Marketing from the University of Denver. For fun, she likes reading (usually three or four books at a time), watching movies from the oldies to the current films, traveling, biking, and hiking in vast Colorado outdoors with her husband. Learn more at www.judykundert.com.You can find me at the foot of the Colorado Rocky Mountains hiking, biking

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