Why The Tooth Fairy Doesn't Smile
It’s a tradition that’s a little long in the tooth (excuse the pun) and leaves a trail of broken smiles, but nevertheless, the tooth fairy has her work cut out for her.
As I pondered this universal mystery, I wondered how the tooth fairy came to be? As a child, I would look forward to losing my teeth just so I could catch this tooth maiden on her tour to collect her wares, but no such luck.
I wondered if she sold them on the street, in a bustling marketplace next to various vendors hawking their vendibles. I imagined her house was full of little piles of baby teeth; some in curios, others preserved in boxes. I could see how she looked at them as accomplishments, maybe even throwing in a biting remark. My imagination was too overactive to think otherwise.
Still something about the tooth fairy began to gnaw at me. In my mind, I never saw her smile. In fact, she was often fatigued. Could it possibly be that the tooth fairy didn’t have anything to smile about?
When a child loses a tooth, the tooth fairy is comes in the middle of the night to retrieve it from under the child’s pillow. Legend has it that once she has taken the tooth, she leaves monetary reimbursement under the pillow, although I think our parents make a little cash on the side by selling the teeth to her.
England tradition holds that if a child's tooth falls out, that child must drop it into a fire, to avoid having to look for it after death, which conjured up images of sorcery. Some people believed that witches were often burned because money appeared after they threw articles into fire. Supposedly a witch obtained power over a person when they burned hair, clothing or teeth from a person. Parents may have scared children into keeping teeth or burning them themselves in order to keep themselves free of demons.
The Vikings had a "tooth fee," or a fee that was given to children upon the use of a tooth. Some claim that the teeth were later strung to make jewelry. The Vikings also thought that children's articles contained great power. Having an article of a child, or a child in your possession was supposed to bring power and luck in battle.
In Spanish-speaking countries, the tooth fairy is called Ratoncito Pérez, a little mouse with a common surname, or just "ratón de los dientes" (Tooth Mouse.)
In Italy, it is called Fatina (tooth fairy) is often substituted by a small mouse (topino.) In France, this character is called La Petite Souris (The Little Mouse.) In Ireland the Tooth Fairy is sometimes known as Annabogle, although this is a more recent tradition. From parts of Lowland Scotland, comes a tradition similar to the fairy mouse: a white fairy rat which purchases the teeth with coins.
In some Asian countries, such as Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, when a child loses a tooth the usual custom is that he or she should throw it onto the roof if it came from the lower jaw, or into the space beneath the floor if it came from the upper jaw. While doing this, the child shouts a request for the tooth to be replaced with the tooth of a mouse. This tradition is based on the fact that the teeth of mice go on growing for their whole life, a characteristic of all rodents.
In parts of India, young children offer their discarded milk tooth to the sun, sometimes wrapped in a tiny rag of cotton turf.
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Whichever way you look at it, the tooth fairy carries the burden of making other people happy. While there is certainly nothing wrong with making other people happy, if we continue to do it without listening to our own needs, we will never be happy.
The tooth fairy carries the smiles of others, but never stops to enjoy a smile of her own. Are you a tooth fairy? Do you want to please others so much, that you are often left out in the cold? Do you always put other people’s needs over yours?
You deserve love too. We are all here to help each other smile and to make this life something worth smiling about. Let’s not leave it up to the tooth fairy. She has enough on her plate. In loving yourself, you are exercising your divinity. It’s a workout to your road of happiness.
