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The festival
The tree has its own festival on the second Monday of October
The Tule tree grows in both the town's main plaza and the atrium of the church of Santa María de la Asunción, with the crafts market, church and plaza all next to it. The Festival of the Tule Tree falls on the second Monday of October.
The size
Thirty people with arms extended are needed to circle the trunk
The trunk is so wide that thirty people with arms extended joining hands are needed to encircle it. In 2005 its trunk had a circumference of 42.0 m, and the tree dwarfs the town's main church and is taller than its spires.
The shapes
Local guides point out the shapes in the trunk with pocket mirrors
The gnarled trunk and branches hold shapes that have been given names such as the elephant, the lion, the Three Kings, the deer, the pineapple, the fish and the squirrel's tail. Local guides point out the shapes using pocket mirrors to reflect the sun.
The sacred tree
A ritual with a dove was held here for the last time in 1834
To the indigenous peoples of this area the tree was sacred, and it was the site of a ritual that included the sacrifice of a dove. Local Zapotec knowledge holds that it was planted about 1,400 years ago by Pechocha, a priest of the Aztec wind god Ehecatl. In the Mixe story it grew from the walking stick of a king named Conday.
The roots
In 1990 it was reported to be dying, its roots short of water
The tree was in danger of drying out in the late 19th century but since then it has been regularly watered. In 1990 it was reported to be slowly dying because its roots have been damaged by water shortages, pollution and traffic, with 8,000 cars travelling daily on a nearby highway. In the dry season the water table here falls by more than six meters.
Day 4, morning
Next is Teotitlan del Valle.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Santa María del Tule and the Wikipedia article Árbol del Tule, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.