Tree worship refers to the tendency of many societies in all of history to worship or otherwise mythologize trees. Trees have played a very important role in many of the world's mythologies and religions, and have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, seeing the growth and death of trees, the elasticity of their branches, the sensitiveness and the annual (every year) decay and revival of their foliage, see them as powerful symbols of growth, decay and resurrection. The most ancient cross-cultural symbolic representation of the universe's construction is the 'world tree'.