Chibber Unjin, North American prairies, Tibet, Mediterranean and Aegean

The holy well tradition is continued on the Isle of Man at Chibber Unjin, the Well of the Ash Tree, and in Cornwall where rags are still hung on a tree at Madron Well .

On the North American prairies, the Lakota, Ongala and Dakota Sioux still put rags in trees (rare features of this landscape) as part of an ancient sweat lodge ritual connected with spiritual purification. Originally the tree would be adorned with gifts of paint or painted hide, but since the earliest contact with European traders, these tokens have been made of cloth. Red is an offering to the sun, blue to the sky and green to the earth. 

In Tibet at Gyatso-la, there is a lone tree on a mountain plain festooned in prayer flags and coloured rags. 

The Mediterranean and Aegean has its own variations of the custom. Today, in western Turkey on the coast near Bodrum, people tie rags to a tree for luck, while in Cyprus and ancient fig growing in an early Christian catacomb, has lower branches covered in shreds of cloth.