So we've explained the fairy and the exchange of teeth, but not really the financial aspect to the Tooth Fairy. And third, what else but the media! Just as Clement Moore created the modern American version of Santa Claus in the previous century, so too did the idea of good fairies and fairy godmothers run rampant on 1950s American childhoods thanks to Tinkerbell and Cinderella. Creating a family ritual about the transition from infancy to childhood makes more sense in this context. Who would give their literal last nickel to a child who had just lost a tooth during the Great Depression and other eras of scarcity? Second, the child-centered view of the American family dates to this period too, when it became normal for parents to cater to their children. Tuleja suggests three things that changed in American society following the end of WWII. What happened in the middle of the 20th century to change this minor folk belief into a full-fledged national myth? And yet the first Tooth Fairy reference citation - in the World Book encyclopedia - didn't come until 1979! For those of us who grew up with special pillows in which to put our deciduous teeth, this is quite frankly surprising. (Public domain image via wikimedia commons.)Ī story in Collier's magazine, one of the most popular of its time, mentioned the Tooth Fairy in 1949. Gray's Anatomy (1918) plate of cut-away view of child's jaw, showing both deciduous and permanent. The fairy-mouse then hides the teeth under the king's pillow, before eventually having him assassinated. The mouse turns out to be a fairy who frees the queen and knocks out the king's teeth. And in late 19th century France, one tradition has the Virgin Mary exchanging a coin or presents for a tooth left under a child's pillow.īut the closest parallel to the American Tooth Fairy may be an 18th century French fairy tale called La Bonne Petite Souris. In the story, a good queen is imprisoned by a bad king and enlists a mouse for help out of her predicament. There's also a Venetian version of the Italian Befana, who acts as Santa Claus, who gives presents or a coin to a child who has lost a tooth. Irish folk tradition includes fairy "changelings," so it's possible that a tooth placed near a sleeping child could serve to fool a malevolent spirit. There is an old British custom, for example, of giving "fairy coins" to servant girls while they slept but this doesn't involve teeth. We therefore have to start in Europe for Tooth Fairy precursors.
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