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tree marriage, symbolic marital union of a person with a tree that is said to be infused with supernatural life. Tree marriage may also be a form of proxy marriage. In one such practice, between a bachelor and a tree, the tree was afterward felled, thereby endowing the man with the widower status required to marry a widow. Tree marriage was once widespread in India. The term can also refer to a nuptial ceremony that takes place in, on, or around a tree or that is sanctified with some part of the tree, such as the bark or sap. The latter practice is more usually part of a religious system or cult organized around beliefs that trees contain hidden or sacred power to cure or to enhance fertility or that they contain the souls of ancestors or of the unborn.