What Do You Wish For?
Wishes are everywhere. Movies, music, fairytales. We make wishes anywhere and anytime we can: shiny coins thrown into water, bright stars, eyelashes blown into the wind, in tiny moments whispered under our breath.
Wishes are symbols of our deepest desires. The things we want so desperately that we have to bet on our own hopes and beliefs that we will get them. The idea that if you wish for something, and complete a kind of ritual while doing so, you increase your chances of getting it, fascinates me. I love wishes. They are tiny whispering moments of magic. No one makes a wish without thinking that someway, somehow, they will get what they want. They are confessions to ourselves, if no one else, of what we want the most.
The use of wishing wells dates back thousands of years, believed to originate from Roman-British and Celtic tradition. Originally, tossing coins into wells was a religious act as a way to make an offer to a god or goddess in return for their wishes to come true.
One of the most famous ancient wishing wells was that of Roman-British and Celtic goddess Coventina. When archaeologists discovered Coventina’s Well, located in a temple dedicated to her, they found thousands of coins from the first through fifth centuries. As soon as I learned about this, all I could think about were the generations of people who stood there and whispered their wishes to the water, and tossed in a coin for good measure. And how this is the exact same thing people do now in front of wells and fountains. People haven’t really changed. There is some relief in knowing that.
Coventina Wishing Well | Ancient Symbols
Blowing out birthday candles as a form of wish-making originates from ancient times as well. It is believed that the ancient Greeks offered round cakes and lit flames to symbolize moonlight and send their wishes to the sky when praying to the Greek goddess of the moon, Artemis. Over time, as the Roman Empire spread and absorbed Greek traditions, this ritual became a part of birthday celebrations. Every year, I look forward to this moment. It’s a time to pause and realize what wishes have come true in the past year, and what wishes I need to make for the next one. We blow a secret message of good fortune into a flame knowing it will reach the skies.
Wishing on stars also dates back thousands of years. Ancient civilizations found various profound meanings in the stars. For instance, the Egyptians held the belief that, after death, souls ascended to the stars. The Babylonians and Greeks believed that the stars were essentially gods, or signs from gods. Whether or not these beliefs are true, I think it says something about human beings that we chose to tell our hopes to the brightest things we could find. When we’re down on our luck and in need of a wish, we turn to things that shine and pierce holes through darkness.
The first time I saw a shooting star was last November. I was outside with my best friend when he spotted it. Of course I made a wish instantly. And I did not tell him what I wished for. That’s part of the ritual; the secrecy. Now, I don’t know if it’s going to come true, it’s vague and far into the future and all signs point to unlikely, but I have the smallest feeling that it just might. Like if I wished it on a shooting star, then it must now be written in the stars, right?
I think, when you make a wish, it comes down to believing that somewhere inside of you is this little bit of magic. And the act of wishing is really just pouring that magic out of you and into the world around you in hopes that it will come true.
References:
Hope, Allison. “The Milky Way — the ultimate wishing well.” CNN, May 6, 2021.
Lauren Tabila et al. “Wishing Wells: The practice of buying good fortune.” Anthropology 125s, University of California, Irvine.
Muoneke, Chiamaka. “Blowing out birthday candles is surprisingly ancient.” National Geographic, July 17, 2025.
Strike Out,
Francesca Rico
Miami
Francesca Rico is a History student at Florida International University. When she is not writing, she enjoys watching movies and finding new cookie recipes to bake for friends and family. She also self-publishes on her Substack, under the handle @chicx5.
