My daughter decided to make her own little ritual. She made a picture of a donkey (that had really...and I mean really BIG teeth) along with a little note. She decided that instead of placing the tooth under her pillow, she would place a pillow at the foot of her bed with the tooth under it, along with the picture. Let's just say that she was beyond excited when she got her money, was able to keep her tooth AND the Tooth Fairy left her a note thanking her for the picture.
Now...this got me thinking...how did the Tooth Fairy come about? How? More importantly, how did the importance of losing a tooth come about? I just had to google it...I just had to! As you can imagine I got a lot of hits and bits of information. The information is actually very interesting and more like a history lesson once you start to search.
My Findings on The Tooth Fairy:
As we now know it, the tooth fairy comes when a child has lost a tooth. Commonly, she is very small, and she comes in the middle of the night. The child is to leave the tooth under his/her pillow, so that the tooth fairy can take it during her visit. Once she has taken the tooth, she leaves some money under the pillow. The teeth are then taken to her tower, and used for her purposes. Just for exactly what purposes? Hmmm...
Many pictures of the tooth fairy have been captured in everything from storybooks to art. The painter Maxfield Parrish is said to have depicted her once in the corner of a painting. It is reasonable to think that the tooth fairy legend originated from a place where folklore and legend are tradition, like England or Ireland.
Among my findings, an interesting tidbit I found was a very old tradition in England. The tradition holds that if a child's tooth falls out, they must drop it into a fire, to avoid having to look for it after death...yikes!!! This may very well be the starting of just how important losing a tooth was. From what I gather this tale was handed down during the Middle Ages to smaller children during the teething stage. With fire being added into the mix, may have brought up images of sorcery. Back in the day an alleged witch was often burned because people believed money appeared after they threw articles into fire.
Now here is where the importance of keeping your tooth comes. When a witch burned a piece of hair, clothing or teeth from a person, she supposedly obtained power over them. Parents may have taught children to keep teeth or burn them themselves in order to stay safe from being controlled by a witch.
Another interesting point is the fact that Vikings had a "tooth fee," or a fee/money that was given to children upon the use of a tooth. This old legend is surrounded in mystery. Alongside it is the superstition in early Viking days that children's articles and pieces contained great power. Having an article of a child, or a child in your possession was supposed to bring power and luck in battle.
Today, this myth is regarded as no more than children's entertainment. Parents dutifully sneak into rooms at night, bearing cold hard cash for the loss of a tooth. Perhaps it is a reward for a "passing of age." A lost tooth is one of the first signs of growing up. Perhaps it is felt that a piece of childhood is lost with every dropped tooth. Whatever the case, the tooth fairy lives on, carrying teeth away for uses that no one will ever know. I just hope it's not for jewelry.
Before I go, I just had to leave you with this:
All the best,