Monday, July 18, 2011

The Holy Tree

I've told this story just once to an audience, during a Saint Patrick's
Day concert we did in a theatre with our band "Idlewild" and a troop of
step dancers, a pipe band and some of my storytelling, four years ago.

At the time some years ago I would travel to and fro in downtown Salt Lake
City and in one part of the inner city neighborhood my wife and I would have lunch at a wonderful little Japanese Restaurant called the Koko Kitchen. They have some of the best Teriyaki, Udon and Sushi in our area. As we would gaze out the window across the street we would see a platform
built around one of the trees along 3rd East. It had lite candles all
around the edges of the platform and on wooden boxes nearby. There were
notes with prayers for family members pinned to the trunk of the tree
under neath a sawed off branch. The heartwood of the stump had an image of
the Virgin Mary in it. Many of the Catholics and others in the area made
little pilgrimages to the tree for St. Mary to bless them or a loved one.
To me it seemed a beautful belief and I thought about some prayer I might
write and a candle I might light on a relatives behalf. Some time went by
and on the local news I'd heard that vandals had come during the night
with chisels and chopped out the image in the tree. When traveling in
Ireland and Wales we saw many Holy Trees within the old Medieval Church
walls or on other sacred sites. Most of these were Yew, but some of them
were of other types, some bleed blood red sap, others were said to be
sentinels and so on. I was broken hearted that someone could be cruel
enough to try to quash other peoples beliefs in our community, but as fate
would have it that did not stop the belief of the people. They still came
and lite candles, pinned their prayers to the tree as if the sacrilege had
never happen, they continued. That was the real beauty of the Holy Tree, it stands there more sacred
than before.

So after I told that story we played a medely of Irish jigs for the step
dance company to dance to called "The Humors of Cappa and The Holy Tree,"

David S. Sharp
Glastonbury duo

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