So this is my last blog in my January Blog Series.. "Are you pondering" hopefully some of you readers enjoyed me sharing random bits of knowledge with you. I didn't get a lot of comments good or bad, though I know some people like Chantel said she couldn't comment back. Thanks to everyone who has been reading though.
Anyway, you're probably thinking... why on earth he is making a blog about the tooth fairy. The answer is I stumbled upon this comic this afternoon and it made me wonder what is the origin of the tooth fairy.
Well it turns out that superstitions/legends/rituals involving children’s baby teeth have a long history through many cultures. However I will start the story of the tooth fairy in Medieval Europe where peasants would bury their children’s teeth in the ground after they lost them... this served two purposes... 1) the new tooth could "grow" out of the seed of the old tooth.... and 2) It kept the teeth from witches who could cast spells on the kids if they got a hold of their baby teeth.
The first "Tooth fairy" might have come from the 18th century French story, La Bonne Petite Souris, which involved a fairy turning into a mouse and taunting the evil king from under his pillow before knocking out his teeth. (yeah strange story, but aren't most fairy tales?)
The tooth fairy took on the form we recognize her as nowadays in the early 1900's in American culture when she began to take teeth placed under children's pillows in exchange for candy or money.
The real question is what does the tooth fairy do with all the teeth? Some people say she puts them in the sky (stars) but I think she has some crazy pyramid scheme and is getting rich off of our teeth.
Bonus Fact:
Lee Rogow's story "The Tooth Fairy" appeared in 1949 was the first children's story written about the tooth fairy
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