WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU DO WITH YOUR TOOTH

Traditions in families can be so powerful for both parents and children as we strive to make beautiful deliberate motions that string together our days and give memories that last our whole lives. Parents everywhere choose tradition to enrich their family’s lives. We find the ceremony of everyday through religious and cultural traditions. Ritual binds us together as parents and makes us keenly aware that we are all more alike than different. Today in D.E.A.R. Time I read out a book ‘Throw your tooth on the roof’ to children. It had tooth traditions from around the world. What fun it was to get to know what children do with their teeth across the globe. Some of the funniest were:

Yupik

My mother wraps my tooth in a food, like meat or bread. Then I feed it to a female dog and say, “Replace this tooth with a better one.”

Yellowknife Dene

My mother or grandmother takes my tooth and puts it in a tree and then my family dances around it. This makes certain that my tooth will grow in as straight as tree.

Costa Rica

My mother takes my tooth and has it plated with gold and made into an earring for me to wear.

Jamaica

At night, after my tooth falls out, the Rolling Calf comes rattling chains to take me and my tooth away. I put my tooth in a tin can and shake it hard. The noise keeps the Rolling Calf away.

Argentina

I put my tooth in a glass of water. During the night a little mouse called EI Ratoncito will come and drink all the water, take my tooth, and leave me some coins or candy in the empty glass.

Turkey

If my parents want me to grow up to graduate from school, they might bury my tooth in the garden of the university. If they hope I will become a doctor, they bury it in the garden of a hospital, or they could bury it in a soccer field so I will be a good soccer player.