US & UK Customs: Making A Wish

There are several customs in the US and UK that involve making wishes, although people do not really believe that they can affect the future. In the US, people make a wish when they first see a star at night, and in the UK people say that you should make a wish when you see a shooting star.
People also make a wish after blowing out the candles on their birthday cake.
Some public places have fountains, or wishing wells, and people make a wish as they throw a coin into the water. In the US, people think of a wish and then try to blow all the seeds off a dandelion (= a wild plant that has yellow flowers and then white balls of seeds), and say that their wish will become true if all the seeds come off in one blow. Another tradition for making a wish is to pull on a wishbone (= the small V-shaped bone in a cooked chicken). Two people each hold one of the ends of the bone and pull on it, and the person who pulls off the larger piece of bone makes a wish.
Wishes are very important in stories, especially fairy tales such as Aladdin, about a boy who rubs a magic lamp, and genie (= a magical spirit) comes out and allows him to make three wishes.