PART 6 (Genre: Culture)
– The Superstitions of Baby Teeth –
I’ve heard that Western cultures have a fantasy figure called “Tooth Fairy.” The fairy replaces a baby tooth underneath a kid’s pillow with some coins while the kid sleeps… It’s such a cute superstition as compared to ours, the Japanese one.
Do you know what Japanese people do when our baby tooth falls out?:
WE LITERALLY THROW IT.
Japan generally explains this behavior like this:
“It’s a sort of ritual. Kids throw their baby tooth to above the roof if it’s the lower tooth and throw it to the ground if it’s the upper tooth, so that their adult tooth grows properly to the direction that they threw it.”
↑Can you understand this logic? Why does Japan recommend us to perform this AGGRESSIVE “ritual?”
I don’t know if you would get it, but actually this superstitious behavior didn’t make sense to me in my childhood.
In Japan we are generally supposed to throw our baby tooth for our good luck, but I’ve never done it. I realized later that what I’d done when my baby tooth fell out is considered the WORST BEHAVIOR in the Japanese superstitious point of view, but who cares?
If Japan had a concept of “Tooth Fairy,” I would’ve put my baby tooth underneath my pillow instead of PUTTING IT IN A TRASH CAN though LOL
– END –
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