Willow Tree

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Willow Tree

Many superstitions have been connected with the willow ever since, according to the authorized version of the English Bible, the Israelites were said to have hung their harps on willow trees (Psalms 137:2). The weeping willow is said to have drooped its branches since the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, in sympathy with this circumstance.

The common willow was once popularly believed to be under the protection of the devil, and it was said that if any person were to cast a knot upon a young willow, sit under the tree, and renounce his or her baptism, the devil would confer upon that person supernatural power. It was believed in Bulgaria that a fever would depart if you ran around a willow tree three times at sunset, crying "The fever shall take thee and the sun shall warm me."