Votive offerings

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I used to live in Japan and attended a few Dondo Matsuri's each year. The difference between what the article suggests and what happens in Japan, is that people take their own New Year decorations from their homes and burn them at the festival. It's a way of cleaning out their past year. People don't tend to leave these particular decorations anywhere.

I've always kinda liked the tree on the path to West Kennet Long Barrow, it reminds me of wishes tied to trees at temples and shrines all across Japan.

I used to live in Japan and attended a few Dondo Matsuri's each year.
We have something in common :-) And you're quite right when you say, "...people take their own New Year decorations from their homes and burn them at the festival." I have seen votive offerings left in obscure places however, usually coins, pebbles or a few wild flowers; one of the scariest was a simple straw doll hanging from the branch of a tree in the eastern mountains of Kyoto - it had several wooden pins stuck through it.

I also like the tree on the way to West Kennet. I've noticed recently that a couple of hawthorn bushes on the path up Waden Hill (from the Avenue) also have a few ribbons attached to them.